**New Moon**

I was invisible

A shadow with a name.

They never saw me,

But still I flickered in their stories.

**Waxing Crescent **

A sliver of becoming

Cut through the dark.

The first time someone saw me

Was the first time I believed I could exist.

**First Quarter **

I stood halfway between

Who i was and who i might be.

Still uncertain,

But no longer silent.

**Waxing Gibbous**

Growth was not graceful

It was aching,

Messy,

A slow unfolding of wounds into wisdom.

But i kept rising.

**Full moon**

At last,

I carried my whole name in the light.

I did not need to be asked to shine.

I simply did.

**Waning Gibbous**

I stopped proving myself,

Some things were worth releasing.

I let go of hands

That only held me when i was dim.

**Last Quarter **

Half light again,

But this time,

balanced.

I had learned to love the parts of me

They called too much.

**Waning Crescent **

I rested,

Not because i was lost

But because i had journeyed far.

And every light needs room to dim.

**New moon (again)**

And when I disappeared,

It wasn’t emptiness.

It was rebirth.

I was never gone

Only becoming again.