Miscellaneous

The quiet space remains now,
a hollow echowhere a thousand yesterdaysonce spun their vibrant thread.
Ask the mirror,
the surface cool and unforgiving,
how art thou now?

Not a monument of marble,
no towering achievementthat commands the gaze of crowds,
but something softer,
a less demanding shape.
Build nothing proud of, let the ego rest,
for pride is often just a borrowed coat.

Intuition was the compass once,
a gentle nudge toward the light,
fulfillment a quiet hum beneath the skin,
the grace notes of existencea muted huein the grand, loud canvas.

Do I truly know the core of this unfolding,
the reason pressed into the breath I take?
Or am I simply tracing linesdrawn by the hands of the collective,
a well-rehearsed functionwithin the larger, churning mechanism of society?

It is how I walk these present miles,
the silent rhythm of my feet,
that speaks louder than any defense.
Less explanation,
less need to soothe the worried frownsof those who brandish their earned paperslike blunt weapons.

They twist the certification,
sharpening the edges for their own small peaks,
a self-appointed validationto fill the empty room behind their eyes.
And I see the grasping,
the hunger for the nod, the applause,
all fueling a self that never seems complete.

I do not know the answer to their scorn,
the sudden stillness that descended.
How it all simply ceased,
the vibrant bridge of connection severed,
not with a crash, but with a slow, almost imperceptible fade.
No final word was offered up,
no necessary closing sentence spoken.

Just the vast, accumulating silence,
the heavy knowledge settling in:
a decade,
a stretch of lonely seasons,
defined by a persistent, self-serving tide.
A decade of looking inward, perhaps too long,
mistakenly called selfishnessby those who never learned to look outwithout expecting something in return.

So, how art thou?
Weathered,
a little worn at the edges,
but learning the quiet strengthof standing still when the world demands you run,
finding the remaining colorin the simple act of breathing on.

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