The mirror confirms what silence echoes:
a face forged in fire, unbowed, undone.
The years pressed like stones on my chest,
each scar a script of what I bore.
The breakup taught the fragility of vows,
the bankruptcy whispered treasure\'s true weight,
the pandemic, a clock with fractured hands,
each hour a hollow, a tender disarray.
I did not want to know such truths,
yet knowledge clings like ash to breath.
Strength wears a quieter garment now,
bravery walks with a softer step.
I stand in the wreckage and still breathe,
each breath a seed sown in struggle.
Call this renewal, call this rebirth loosely,
the soil fertile from storms endured.