Author’s Note

This piece came from that subtle shift — the moment when someone stops being just a presence in your life and starts becoming a direction. It’s about the quiet work that happens behind the scenes, the way you start rearranging your habits, your thoughts, your intentions, not because you’re trying to impress someone, but because you genuinely want to meet them where they are.

It’s not a confession.
It’s not a promise.
It’s an acknowledgment.

A recognition that connection isn’t built in grand gestures, but in patience, consistency, and the willingness to grow into someone who can hold another person’s trust. This poem is me naming that process — the slow, steady movement toward “us,” whatever shape that eventually takes.

Working Toward Us
Poetry by Rowan Evans

It’s strange,
the way things can change—
the way a single person
can make you want to
rearrange everything.

Isn’t it strange?

The way someone can
sit right there
on the tip of the
tongue.

Isn’t it something?

When every word
spoken
becomes a love token,
simply because
it carries a piece of them too.

And every word written
takes the shape
of her silhouette.
Because when my pen
hits the page,
it’s like a brush
dancing across canvas.

I try to capture
the beautiful hues
of a soul in motion,
with nothing but ink
and observation.
Learning everything I can
through conversation.
I want to understand…

I’m patient.

But I want you to know,
I’m working toward us—
whatever shape that takes,
I want to be
somebody
you can truly trust.
Somebody
you can lean on
when things get
a little too rough.

I’m working toward
you and I, walking
the same streets.
You and I, side by side
enjoying life.

If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]