Poem: I Can Be Ready, Or I Can Wait

 I Can Be Ready, Or I Can Wait

if that is better.  I know
now is not always the time,
is not always when I am needed.
I have learned.

I know, you think I have no patience,
but I have, I am saying, learned.
Waiting is not beyond me any longer.

You think you know, but
I am not who I always was.
Try me.  I am here, am returned,
but I am not the same.

There is so much that has been
and you are waiting for me
as if it was nothing.
I am here.  I am not the same,
though much that I need and want
is not so different. Much that I can do
is not so different.  I am, in ways,

who I was then.  You can know
what you can know, if you know
what I am telling you,
and if I know you 
I am not telling you a thing
you do not know already,
but it is this way anyway.
I am here and ready,
that is most important 
for you to know and realize:
I am present now and in this place,
though, as I have said,
I can delay until things are prepared.
I am ready now, but I am patient,
have learned to wait, as well.

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