If I Were a Shapeshifter

If I Were a Shapeshifter: What Would I Become?

A Reflection on Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown’s Poem

By Vo Thi Nhu Mai

Vietnamese-Australian Poet and Writer

Featured Article

Abstract

Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown’s poem If I Were a Shapeshifter approaches identity through imagination, transformation, possibility, and freedom. The speaker considers becoming liquid, fire, earth, wind, and other forms while questioning whether transformation would occur internally, externally, or both. In this reflection, I consider the shapeshifter as a metaphor for the many identities and possibilities that can exist within one person. As a Vietnamese-Australian poet and writer, I connect with the poem’s consideration of identity as something capable of movement while still retaining a sense of self. Williams-Brown’s work invites readers to consider who they might become if they were free from limitation, expectation, and fear. Ultimately, the poem suggests that transformation does not necessarily mean becoming someone else. It may instead mean discovering another dimension of who we already are.

Featured in Krafty Page ChronicleS

If I Were a Shapeshifter appears in the July 2026 Global Issue of Krafty Page ChronicleS, Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation. The issue represents a creative collaboration between Krafty Page ChronicleS and The Rhythm of Vietnam, bringing together writers and creative voices through poetry, literature, culture, identity, experience, and human connection.

Introduction

Some poems give us an answer.

Others leave us with a question.

Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown’s If I Were a Shapeshifter belongs to the second kind.

When I read this poem, I did not see the shapeshifter simply as a mythical figure capable of changing form. I saw a person asking a very human question: What would I become if I were free to become anything?

That question sounds simple until we begin to think about everything that influences the answer.

Family.

Culture.

Expectation.

Experience.

Fear.

Memory.

Even the opinions of other people.

We are often told who we are before we have had enough time to decide for ourselves.

Williams-Brown’s poem gives that decision back to the individual.

The Poem as Published

Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown

If I Were a Shapeshifter

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

The poem begins with the words, “Now you see me, now you don’t.”

That opening immediately establishes movement between presence and absence.

Visible and invisible.

Here and somewhere else.

I think there is something deeply human in that idea.

People are constantly being observed and interpreted by others, yet no one can completely know what exists inside another person. We reveal certain parts of ourselves while keeping other parts private.

Sometimes those hidden parts are even unknown to us.

That is why I see the shapeshifter as more than an imaginary figure. The shapeshifter becomes a metaphor for possibility.

Perhaps changing shape is not always about becoming somebody else. Perhaps it is about discovering another part of ourselves.

Liquid: The Ability to Adapt

Williams-Brown writes, “I’m liquid.”

Liquid has no permanent shape. It responds to the space around it while remaining capable of movement.

That image immediately makes me think about identity.

How often do we adapt because life requires us to adapt?

How often do we enter new environments and discover another side of ourselves?

Adaptability is sometimes misunderstood as weakness. I do not see it that way.

There is strength in knowing how to move without completely losing yourself.

Liquid changes its form, but it does not cease to be liquid.

That distinction matters.

We can change and still remain ourselves.

Fire: When Transformation Becomes Necessary

The poem then shifts from liquid to fire.

“I’m fire.”

The energy changes immediately.

Fire represents movement, power, heat, destruction, and transformation.

Unlike liquid, which adapts to its surroundings, fire changes its surroundings.

That difference gives the poem another layer.

Not every transformation is gentle.

Some changes happen because we choose them.

Others happen because life leaves us no alternative.

There are moments when an old version of ourselves can no longer remain where it is.

We grow.

We change.

We let go.

Sometimes we burn away what no longer belongs to us.

Would I Change Inside or Outside?

One of the questions that stayed with me is whether the speaker would change inside or outside.

That question moves the poem beyond physical transformation.

We live in a world that often notices external change first. People notice appearance, clothing, age, hair, body, and presentation.

But internal transformation can be much greater than anything visible from the outside.

A person can look exactly the same while becoming an entirely different version of themselves internally.

Someone can become stronger after years of struggle.

Someone can learn to forgive.

Someone can learn to establish boundaries.

Someone can discover confidence.

Someone can finally understand their own worth.

Those transformations may not be visible to anyone else.

But they are real.

Earth, Wind, and Fire

Williams-Brown asks whether she would become an element.

Earth.

Wind.

Fire.

Each carries a different meaning.

Earth suggests grounding and stability.

Wind suggests freedom, movement, and the ability to move beyond boundaries.

Fire suggests energy and transformation.

What interests me most is that the speaker does not limit transformation to becoming another person.

She imagines becoming part of nature itself.

That expands the meaning of the poem.

Transformation can be physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, or imaginative.

It can change the way we experience ourselves without changing the person others see.

Who Would I Be?

Eventually, the poem asks the question beneath all of the other questions: Who would I be?

For me, this is where the poem turns toward the reader.

Who would I be without fear?

Who would I be without expectations?

Who would I be if I stopped allowing other people to define my possibilities?

Who would I become if I gave myself permission to imagine something beyond what I already know?

These questions are not limited to poetry.

They are questions that many people carry quietly.

Identity Is More Than One Shape

As a Vietnamese-Australian poet and writer, I am particularly aware of how identity can contain multiple layers.

Culture influences us.

Family influences us.

Language influences us.

Place influences us.

Memory influences us.

Experience influences us.

Yet none of these influences necessarily creates one permanent definition of who we are.

We can carry different experiences at the same time.

We can belong to different places.

We can change without becoming less authentic.

That is one reason Williams-Brown’s shapeshifter speaks to me.

The ability to change does not necessarily mean the absence of identity.

Sometimes it means identity is larger than one form.

The People We Imagine Becoming

Williams-Brown brings recognizable figures into the poem as she imagines who she might become.

I read that section as another question about admiration.

When we imagine becoming another person, are we really asking to become that person?

Or are we identifying a quality that person represents?

Perhaps it is confidence.

Perhaps it is beauty.

Perhaps it is strength.

Perhaps it is visibility.

Perhaps it is freedom.

Sometimes the people we admire reveal qualities we want to develop within ourselves.

That makes the shapeshifter metaphor even more meaningful.

Transformation can become a process of discovering what we value.

The Freedom of Imagination

Poetry gives us permission to imagine what ordinary life does not always allow.

We can become water.

We can become fire.

We can become wind.

We can become something impossible.

Yet sometimes an impossible image allows us to express something completely real.

Imagination is not necessarily an escape from reality.

Sometimes imagination gives us a language for understanding reality.

Williams-Brown uses the impossible idea of shapeshifting to ask very possible questions about identity.

Transformation Without Erasing the Past

I do not read this poem as a desire to erase the past.

I read it as an acknowledgment that people change.

Every experience leaves something behind.

Every relationship teaches something.

Every difficult season can alter our understanding of ourselves.

The person we were is not necessarily an obstacle to the person we become.

That earlier version of ourselves helped create the present one.

Transformation does not have to mean erasure.

It can mean expansion.

An Adventure, a Journey, a Dream

Williams-Brown eventually imagines life as an adventure, a journey, and a dream.

Each word carries its own meaning.

An adventure contains uncertainty.

A journey contains movement.

A dream contains possibility.

Life can contain all three.

We do not always know where we are going.

We do not always know what is waiting for us.

We do not always know who we will become.

Maybe we are not supposed to know.

Maybe part of becoming is allowing ourselves to discover the answer while we are living it.

What the Poem Says to Me

When I read If I Were a Shapeshifter, I hear a woman giving herself permission to imagine.

Permission to change.

Permission to question.

Permission to become.

That matters because we are often taught to stay within definitions that other people understand.

But poetry does not always respect those boundaries.

Poetry asks questions.

Poetry challenges certainty.

Poetry allows us to say what ordinary language sometimes cannot.

Williams-Brown’s poem gives the reader that freedom.

She does not tell us exactly who she would become.

She leaves room for us to answer the question ourselves.

The Courage to Imagine Another Self

There is also courage in imagining another version of yourself.

It may sound easy, but it is not always easy to admit that we want change.

Sometimes we are afraid of disappointing people.

Sometimes we are afraid of disappointing ourselves.

Sometimes the familiar is uncomfortable, but the unfamiliar is frightening.

Williams-Brown’s poem creates a space where none of that has to control the imagination.

For a moment, the speaker can become anything.

That freedom is powerful.

Creator Spotlight: Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown

Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown is a Birmingham, Alabama native whose life reflects both professional achievement and creative expression. Her Creator Spotlight describes her as a poet, crafter, and lifelong storyteller who embraces faith and perseverance while transforming personal experience into words of healing and encouragement.

Williams-Brown recently retired from Tennessee State University following a distinguished 22-year tenure as Business Coordinator. Her professional accomplishments include the distinction of being the first African American woman in Tennessee to pass the Educational Facilities Professional Certification examination.

Her relationship with poetry extends across decades. In 1997, her work No Where To Go was featured in the anthology A Celebration of Poets. Her continued commitment to writing eventually led to the release of Pieces of Anjie, her debut solo collection.

Her poetry reflects themes of love, family, inspiration, imagination, healing, and encouragement. She also remains active within the literary community as a host for poetry platforms and a performer at various venues.

Williams-Brown’s service and leadership experience includes serving as a Tennessee State University President’s Fellow, a Toastmasters leader, and a board member for Women in Higher Education of Tennessee. She is an alumna of both the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Tennessee State University.

The Courage to Share the Words

One statement from Williams-Brown’s Creator Spotlight particularly connects with this poem:

“Success, for me, is having the courage to share my words and publish them.”

I understand that statement.

Writing something privately is one thing.

Allowing another person to read it is something else.

Once words are published, they no longer belong only to the moment in which they were written. Readers bring their own memories, cultures, experiences, and interpretations to the work.

That is one of the beautiful risks of writing.

Williams-Brown shares her words.

I respond to those words through reflection.

Another reader may discover something completely different.

That does not diminish the poem.

It gives the poem another life.

Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation

If I Were a Shapeshifter is especially fitting for Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation because the poem itself is concerned with movement between forms.

The July 2026 Global Issue of Krafty Page ChronicleS brings together Krafty Page ChronicleS and The Rhythm of Vietnam through a creative collaboration centered on different voices and experiences.

For me, cultural exchange does not mean that our differences disappear.

It means we learn to hear one another without requiring the other person to become like us.

A Vietnamese-Australian writer can read an American poet and recognize an emotion without pretending that both lives are the same.

A poet from one cultural background can find connection with a poet from another without erasing either person’s history.

That is the value of literary exchange.

We do not have to become the same to understand one another.

Krafty Page ChronicleS and The Rhythm of Vietnam

This collaboration creates a meeting place for literature, culture, identity, and creative expression.

Poetry can cross borders in ways that geography cannot.

A poem can travel farther than its writer.

A story can reach someone the writer may never meet.

A reader can encounter a life they have never lived and still recognize an emotion they understand.

That is why I believe poetry remains important.

It allows difference and connection to exist at the same time.

Conclusion

After reading Williams-Brown’s poem, I return to the question:

What would I become?

Would I become liquid?

Would I become fire?

Would I become earth?

Would I become wind?

Would I change what people see?

Would I change what exists inside me?

Or would I simply become more fully myself?

Perhaps that is the deeper question beneath the poem.

We spend so much time asking who we are supposed to become that we sometimes forget to ask who we already are.

Williams-Brown’s shapeshifter gives us permission to imagine beyond the obvious.

It reminds me that identity can move without disappearing.

Change does not automatically mean rejection of the past.

Growth does not require us to deny who we once were.

Becoming does not mean that we were incomplete.

Sometimes becoming simply means another part of us has finally found room to breathe.

That is what I take from If I Were a Shapeshifter.

Not the desire to become somebody else.

The freedom to imagine.

The courage to change.

And perhaps the greatest transformation of all: becoming comfortable enough with ourselves to ask what else is possible.

About Vo Thi Nhu Mai

Vo Thi Nhu Mai is a Vietnamese-Australian poet and writer whose creative work engages identity, culture, human connection, emotion, and lived experience. Her writing reflects an interest in the ways literature creates conversations between people whose backgrounds and experiences may differ.

In this article, Mai offers a personal reflection on Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown’s If I Were a Shapeshifter, examining the poem through the themes of transformation, identity, imagination, freedom, and possibility.

Editorial Note

This article is a literary reflection written by Vo Thi Nhu Mai in response to Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown’s poem If I Were a Shapeshifter.

Williams-Brown is the author of the poem. Vo Thi Nhu Mai is the author of this reflection.

The feature appears in connection with the July 2026 Global Issue of Krafty Page ChronicleS, Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation, and the publication’s collaboration with The Rhythm of Vietnam.

References

Williams-Brown, A. (2026). If I were a shapeshifter [Poem]. Krafty Page ChronicleS, July 2026 Global Issue, Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation.

Williams-Brown, A. (2026). Pieces of Anjie.

Williams-Brown, A. (2026). Creator spotlight. Krafty Page ChronicleS, July 2026 Global Issue.

Vo Thi Nhu Mai. (2026). If I were a shapeshifter: What would I become? A reflection on Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown’s poem. Krafty Page ChronicleS.

Article Information

Title: If I Were a Shapeshifter: What Would I Become?

Reflection Author: Vo Thi Nhu Mai

Poem Author: Anjetta “Anjie” Williams-Brown

Featured Poem: If I Were a Shapeshifter

Publication: Krafty Page ChronicleS

Issue: July 2026 Global Issue

Special Issue: Metamorphoses: Lives in Translation

Collaboration: Krafty Page ChronicleS and The Rhythm of Vietnam