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In the beginning there was no ground beneath my feet, only thresholds. I was given the body of a child so that fear would fit inside me. Night came not as darkness but as order. And with it, the man. He did not knock. He did not ask. He touched the lamp, and the room obeyed. Light was made, but it was not good. He laid a covering over me, cold as prophecy, measured as law. I trembled, for I did not know whether he was messenger or sentence. Beside me, another body slept— eyes closed to revelation, mouth faithful only to breath. The man spoke, but I sealed my ears as one seals a tomb. Then he was taken from me. And in his absence a figure rose at the edge of distance— white as bone, tall as judgment, faceless as truth before language. I lifted my hands and captured it the way men capture miracles to prove they existed. The creature weakened when seen. I sent the image to the one who made my name. Her voice descended without mercy: There is nothing here. You are inventing the world. I did not open her words. Some scriptures are written to erase. Then the waters parted. Not to save, but to keep. A beast moved beneath the surface, older than prayer, patient as cruelty. It swallowed without finishing the act. Each day I learned how far a soul can swim without being free. After the waters, cloth was raised into a tent. Inside, a woman bent toward the invisible, hands folded around silence. A man approached her. I placed my hand in the air and the air listened. We stepped back. We waited. The prayer was allowed to complete itself. And it was the first time nothing sacred was touched. Then I understood: The monsters are loud because they are simple. The men are quiet because they are real. The world does not end in fire, nor in flood, nor in trumpet. It ends when someone turns on the lamp beside your bed and you do not know whether to call it light or warning. And I remained between places— not lost, not chosen, not redeemed. Only awake in a creation that never asked to be believed.
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Jan 31
Jan 31, 2026 at 2:22 PM UTC
Thresholds Of Awake
In the beginning there was no ground beneath my feet, only thresholds. I was given the body of a child so that fear would fit inside me. Night came not as darkness but as order. And with it, the man. He did not knock. He did not ask. He touched the lamp, and the room obeyed. Light was made, but it was not good. He laid a covering over me, cold as prophecy, measured as law. I trembled, for I did not know whether he was messenger or sentence. Beside me, another body slept— eyes closed to revelation, mouth faithful only to breath. The man spoke, but I sealed my ears as one seals a tomb. Then he was taken from me. And in his absence a figure rose at the edge of distance— white as bone, tall as judgment, faceless as truth before language. I lifted my hands and captured it the way men capture miracles to prove they existed. The creature weakened when seen. I sent the image to the one who made my name. Her voice descended without mercy: There is nothing here. You are inventing the world. I did not open her words. Some scriptures are written to erase. Then the waters parted. Not to save, but to keep. A beast moved beneath the surface, older than prayer, patient as cruelty. It swallowed without finishing the act. Each day I learned how far a soul can swim without being free. After the waters, cloth was raised into a tent. Inside, a woman bent toward the invisible, hands folded around silence. A man approached her. I placed my hand in the air and the air listened. We stepped back. We waited. The prayer was allowed to complete itself. And it was the first time nothing sacred was touched. Then I understood: The monsters are loud because they are simple. The men are quiet because they are real. The world does not end in fire, nor in flood, nor in trumpet. It ends when someone turns on the lamp beside your bed and you do not know whether to call it light or warning. And I remained between places— not lost, not chosen, not redeemed. Only awake in a creation that never asked to be believed.
I wrote a poem about a dream I had, and decided to write in more biblical way.
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18/F/United States
Jan 31
Jan 31, 2026 at 2:22 PM UTC
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