Rise Up

This painting did not begin as it ended.

At first, there was one figure—
arms reaching,
head bowed,
asking the sky for something it could not give.

By morning, that posture no longer fit.

I stood before it and understood:
nothing was meant to lift her.
She was meant to rise.

The first woman was not erased—
she was multiplied.

Two more emerged,
and then another version of her,
each one looking upward,
not in plea,
but in alignment.

Every woman in this piece is me.
Not at different times,
but at the same moment—
the many selves required to stand again.

This is not ascent fueled by force.
It is elevation born of recognition.
A remembering that strength does not descend from above—
it gathers,
it straightens,
it rises.

What once reached outward
now lifts from within.