No Void Shall Consume Me

The void reached out,
but I did not bow.
A spark endures
in me, in you,
burning still,
becoming vow.

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I will not slip quietly in to the undertow.
The abyss extends its jaws.
The void hums with promises of rest.

Yet I do not bend my neck.
I will not descend in silence.
I will not let the ruin write my ending.

I rise. Shattered. Bleeding. Trembling.

But still… I rise.

I choose the blaze of resistance, over the velvet numbness.
I choose the agony of standing, over the comfort of collapse.
I choose to live, even as the grave sharpens its teeth.

For there is a lantern inside my ribs.
A flame, older than my sorrow.
A pulse, older than my fear.

And I know this… the same flame flickers in you.
It hides, it falters, it forgets its own brightness… but it is there.
Waiting for your breath to awaken it.

The world would have us kneel to despair.
To stitch our own mouths closed.
To believe that silence is strength.

But I am no servant of oblivion.
And neither are you.

So I will fight the night with my final flame.
And when I rise from the ash… I will drag your soul upward with me.

Because what beats in me… also beats in you.
Let us bare our wounds like banners.
Let us prove to the silence that we will not be swallowed.

I will not go down that way.

And if you listen closely… you will hear it in yourself too.

A vow whispered from your own bones.

A quiet roar rising into thunder: I am still here.