L O V E / S U R V I V A L

Stitched my name back on my heart—

Humming in the dark; now I’m my own star.

Mirror fogged with everyone’s breath but mine,

Hands learned how to hold the line.

Used to chase echoes for a little applause,

Now I keep rhythm with my flaws.

I’m two steps past the thunder,

Counting scars like pearls I plunder.

Love’s not a searchlight out at sea—

It’s the lighthouse built in me.

Lost myself to fit your type;

Now my soul signs in my own typeface.

I’m the page and I’m the pen,

I’m the wound and I’m the mend.

Self-love, I breathe—my lifeline, my revival;

No crown required—my pulse is my arrival.

World gets loud? I go calm and tidal;

Hold me close, me—love as survival.

Prayed for air, learned I’m the heir—inherit the air;

Broke in the sole, rose soleil, rooted in soil I wear.

Mask for likes—the like-ness leaked;

Now the lightness speaks when my likeness speaks.

Add my past, subtract the wrath,

Multiply grace—whole at last.

Water the quiet where roots begin;

Grow through cracks, rise within.

Won’t trade oceans for a cup,

Won’t dim down to measure up.

Chasing your sky left me blind;

Now my dawn is self-designed.

I’m the spark and I’m the flame,

I’m the rule and I’m the change.

Self-love, I breathe—my lifeline, my revival;

If the world goes cold, I go vinyl—spiral.

Warm and worn, still reliable—

Ink in my bones: “I’m undeniable.”

I went from break-fast—breaking fast from the past,

To a break fast lane where the brakes don’t last.

I’m a counter: count meals, count time; I counter lies—counter-strike with rhyme.

Heart ware upgraded—software patched;

Put my mask off, now the tasks all match.

I’m the c(h)ord and the cord, I connect and resound,

Write rights that were wronged, set the record renowned.

I don’t weight for the world—drop burdened weights,

I wait with myself, that patience creates.

Turn scar into star, rearrange the letters,

Turn me into em-power, rearrange for better.

If love is a lock, I’m both latch and key—

Open sesame, self-legacy.

[Female] If every tear is rain, then let it fall.

[Male] Bloom a forest out of all that fall.

Both: We are the proof inside the pain—

We lose to learn our true full name.

Self-love, we breathe—our lifeline, our revival;

No rush, no hush—we rise on our arrival.

When the world forgets, we write our title,

Ink in the soul—love as survival.

If silence asks us who we are—

We point to every healed scar.

I’m not the storm that broke me—

I’m the calm that chose me.