Today doesn’t arrive gently
It crashes into meLike a truth I’ve been avoiding
Sharp
Bright
Impossible to swallow
The air tastes electric
As if the world is holding its breath
Waiting to see
Whether I’ll rise
Or break
I feel everything at once
The old ache behind my ribs
The quiet hope I pretend not to want
The grief that keeps rewriting its name
On the inside of my chest
I tell myself
Stand still
Don’t run
Let the feeling burn through you
Instead of around you
So I open the door to the morning
With trembling hands
Letting the light hit the parts of me
I’ve kept in the dark too long
It hurts
God it hurts
But there’s something holy
In the way pain makes room
For whatever comes next
If hope returns
It won’t be soft
It will be fierce
Like a heartbeat refusing to quit
Like a promise I thought I’d lost
Finding its way back to me
And if it doesn’tI’ll still be here
Standing in the raw brightness of today
Unarmored
Unhidden
Alive enough to feel
Every last spark