For sixty years you waited.
Hiding behind your fears.
Tag-along daughter, sister, wife.
Pull-along mother. Again and again
someone for someone else.

Now. Exactly now be someone for you.
Push your fears behind you into hiding.
Pull your dreams out one by one.
Dust and all—they are yours,
For no one else.

You have made your path ready.
Fear nothing. Brandish hidden strength.
You pulled long and hard against yourself.
Step tall and full into this world at last:
You. Entirely.

Kate Franzmann’s work has appeared in several Wisconsin Poets' Calendars, an early issue of Bramble, Beyond Words, and River Styx, as well as the Driftless Writing Center's anthology, Contours. She makes her home in southwestern Wisconsin, amidst an inspiring landscape.