A change of scenery and a new life.  An innocent beginning, as all beginnings seem to be.  Still, after all these years remnants of that incipience still remain.  

A new adventure
Packed, moved, unloaded, emptied
All but for a few

Boxes with pieces of me packed away and disregarded.  Never to bask in the sun or live in all their glory.  Too little too late.  Like a lost retainer straining to fit shifted teeth, they no longer belong to me these bits and pieces.  

Long since forgotten
Secrets held within their walls
Hiding shattered dreams

They had gone unnoticed for so long.  Yet, the secrets of how I came to be the me before you, remain in those dusty boxes, so neatly stacked and so easily overlooked.  They may no longer fit the puzzle, but they are still part of the picture adding splashes of color and bringing zeal and

**Artful shading
To my self-portrait painted
in hues of joy and pain