
Unfolding
By SHARON ROOK DALY
Day unfolds into shadowed evening
stripping away expectations
worn throughout the day
for society’s minions.
I can conjure these masks
from the thinnest of vapors
and hold them in place
by a delicate balancing of fingers
curved around my chin
lest they fall from my countenance
unbidden.
Light recedes into darkened sky
exposing the
silent relinquishing
of artifice unmasked
revealing my primordial form
like a nocturnal creature
unfolding its wings
at nightfall
on the verge of awakening.
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Sharon Rook Daly is a teacher by profession, a recent fellow of the Greater Madison Writing Project, and a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.