They might have told us
when we were young:
Self-ownership is a kind of leadership
where you do not expect of yourself
to master the world around you
but rather,
it is an allowing of mistakes.
They might have said
not to get so hung up
on the successes or failures
of a moment,
They should have said
to allow yourself to try,
and not expect
to get it right first time,
allow yourself even
perhaps, to give up on things
that are no longer meant for you,
or were never truly yours to begin with.
They might have let us know
that the path to wholeness
involves asking no one but yourself
for permission,
and wearing all regrets
like a meadow wears the morning mist
and afterwards the dew.
They really should have told us.
But they did not know themselves.
Because no one told them.
And now,
no one else is coming.
© Rocco Jarman, October 2021
