A Eulogy for Who I Used to Be

She was good at disappearing.

Soft-spoken,

gentle in a way

that made it easy for people

to confuse her mercy for frailty,

her kindness for glass.

But she is gone now.

In her place stands a woman

who takes up space,

who says her name

like a declaration of independence.

I buried the girl who apologized for everything.

laid her to rest in the sepulcher of forgotten selves,

and sang a requiem for all the times she bit her tongue.

May she rest

and may what rose from her

never bow again.