when your sadness suddenly lifts
like a veil, taking with it
the cobwebs you’ve carried
the assumptions you’ve nurtured
from the infancy of your pain
that lurked, forlorn in these shadows

though you knew all along there was also joy
spied it through this black lace
even through your eyelids, closed in weary sorrow
you saw its light burn rosy pink, waiting

will you remember
as the dust settles on your discarded shroud
and you’ve wrapped yourself instead in this new warmth
how in this first moment of lifting
you breathed
you saw these colors fully
and laughed
and danced