I see you,
river that will not stop running,
grief curled into the corners of my eyes.

You come because I loved,
because my heart was brave enough
to believe in forever.
And now forever is silence,
and silence is heavier than stone.

I ache for his return,
but I know—
if he cannot hold the weight of my love,
he cannot hold me.

So cry, little heart,
spill oceans if you must.
Every tear waters the seed of tomorrow.
Every sob is proof
that I lived,
that I dared to love,
that my spirit has not gone numb.

One day,
these rivers will run clear.
One day,
I will rise from their bed,
shining,
carrying not the loss,
but the fire that loss could never steal.

Until then—
I will let myself weep,
and know that even in sorrow,
I am still becoming.

He gave her his dawns,
his nights, his trembling heart,
but when silence came,
her sorrow leaned heavier
for another name.

She wept for a ghost
that was never hers,
and he, the Fool,
learned the cruelest truth,
that love can be given,
yet grief belongs elsewhere.

You have been called 'too much'
just for feeling.
Silenced,
when all you wanted was to be heard.

You’ve fought the invisible.
You’ve overcome the sadness
that had no name.
You climbed out of the pit of depression.
You walked away from a love
that called you a burden
just for existing with emotion.

And yet —
or maybe because of all this —
you stand here now,
ready to take a step
greater than any step
you’ve ever taken before.

Perhaps what holds you back
is not lack of ability,
but the ache of becoming vast
after being made so small for so long.

Understand this, sweet girl:
no one sabotages themselves because they want to fail.
They sabotage themselves
because they fear rejection
for daring to shine.

And so your soul whispers:
“What if I could fly a little farther?”

Let your blood remind you
that you are still alive.
No soldier waits to feel confident
before entering battle.

I have conquered silence.
I have conquered erasure.
I have conquered the darkness of the mind.
Now I conquer my freedom —
because it is mine by right.

I will no longer live half of myself.