pride, n. A strong sense of self-respect; a refusal to be humiliated, as well as joy in one’s own accomplishments or those of a person, group, or object with which one identifies.

“Frog Prince”
For D.

She swore she’d change me,
and she did. Unzipped
the old skin and hid it,
somewhere, ripped out
the webbing between my fingers,
snipped off a few inches
of my too-long and sticky tongue.
And she had the swamp
behind the house drained,
convinced her dad that
I was just like him, her mom
that I wouldn’t return
to my old ways, herself
that she could make it work,
that she would make it work.
Perhaps I’d thought she could,
perhaps I’d hoped.
But now this new skin,
itchy and dry, wrinkled
when wet, and always hot.
And there is this new face
I wear like my own.
And the ring on my finger,
the gold hoop I couldn’t jump through.
So now I see us everywhere,
trapped in these bodies
and these lives, our frantic
gray-green eyes like fires
banked into coals, nostalgic
for other places, other desires.

–Ed Madden

Pride enters when my spine aligns and I stand tall, when I speak my piece and my chest opens to the resonance of my voice. Pride enters when I am fully immersed in the dance of life: proud to be human, proud to be alive, proud to be about my work, proud to know you, and proud to begin to know myself. Pride emerges when our will is engaged and we stand upright in our truth.

–T. Thorn Coyle