Not Weak Just Soft: a Poem

Not weak, just soft
Not bitter, just hurt
Not a pessimist, I learned
Not lonely but armed

with courage to step away
from my own shadow if I may
walk past its umbra and
back to lighter shades

Because one minute I’m
swimming into hot springs
and the next I’m flying in
iced skies without wings

Chasing warm fronts
in snowstorms when
I’m a nest, not a holiday in,
a Jolly Rancher, not a Junior Mint.