That day was like any other
The sun dipped below the horizon,
Leaving shadows to stretch and crawl.
A figure crossed my path,
Familiar yet distant,
As if the ground beneath me quaked,
And I was the only one to feel its tremor.
His words dripped like honey,
Yet their weight pressed down, suffocating.
What began as laughter curled into silence,
My voice lost in the air,
My body, a statue caught in time,
A scream buried deep within.
That day, something was stolen,
More than what was asked for,
Each heartbeat, each breath,
Transformed my flesh into stone,
An effigy of fear,
As if fading into nothing could save me.
The world spun on, indifferent,
While I stood still, suspended in that moment.
Time stretched like a night without dawn,
And I counted the moments,
Yearning to forget,
Yearning to feel whole again.
That day, my essence became a stranger,
A landscape marred by shadows,
And I wondered if I could ever reclaim it.
Could I ever find safety
Within the confines of my own being?
But here I am
That day will not define my story.
The echoes may linger,
But so does the ember within.
I rise, even when the darkness looms,
I rise,
Not because it’s easy,
But because I must.
Because I am still here,
And this is only the beginning of my journey.