Without Trying

I am not the person
I may be expected to be.

Peeling away the layers
of who I am not,
the urge to please
and appease
slowly drop away.

I have tried
to smooth my edges
to fit the shapes
I thought
my world wanted.

I did not see
that my map of it
was of my own imagining,
that what truly fits
into its shifting tapestry
is itself constantly changing,
part of its flow.

There is a place
in this big world
for everything
to be what it is,
to find its own shape,
fluid and dynamic,
without trying
to be otherwise.