Énouement (poem)

If I could talk to my past self about my present-self's triumphs...

Shiva (from the manga/anime film "The Girl From The Other Side") sitting at a table near a cup full of tea. She is wearing a white nightgown with big black buttons and has medium-length white hair. There are daffodils in the background.

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I'd tell them that the rainbows that lived within them

are now worn on proud sleeves.

I'd tell them that their new sunrise

is in the form of a sassy cat gracing

their every morning with cheery meows

and curls up like a crescent moon

at the edge of their bed nightly.

I'd tell them they're married to their best friend from high school

who loves to philosophize as much as they do

and they have another best friend

who's a poet that they would fan "gurl" over in secret

before our mutual friendship was declared.

I'd tell them so much,

but I can't exactly get tea with preteen me,

so I simply keep living

and choose to believe in retrospective healing.

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Énouement is the bittersweet feeling of having arrived in the future and seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.