u/Relevant_Bluebird564

Brave are the eyes

that meet the mirror

unshielded

from truth’s

pointed finger

.

This is you

.

real

refined

No veil of blame

No weight of judgment

No mist of denial

.

This is you

.

heroic

You faced demons

called them your own

stilled them

with compassion

with forgiveness

.

This is you

.

Courageous the hands

that reach toward another

in need

unarmed of pride

that cripples many

into silence

or hollow roar

.

This is you

.

strength made visible

No muffled voice

No walls in sight

No muted heart

.

This is you

.

valiant

progress measured

in the smallest steps

You survived

Even your shadows learned to kneel

To know me

is to feel

.

Look longer than sight allows

See the man inside me

Open me

like a worn novel

Crease the spine

the bent pages remember

where life pressed hardest

.

My skin

ink-stained parchment

written slowly

through a life of awareness

.

My portrait hangs here

a stretched canvas exterior

holding an inquisitive interior

color thrown in places

no careful brush would choose

The frame of life

still unfinished

.

Light enters

as a wandering prism

breaking me quietly open

a spectrum spills

fragments of living

shattered moments

arranged in patterns

almost beautiful

though the edges

refuse symmetry

.

Beneath the colors

something deeper stirs

Strip away the layers

Peel back the quiet veneer

Feel the blood rise

an ocean of tears gathering

against its shore

a certain sunlight madness

moving in the tide

.

My weakness

this moment

before the change

.

For strength

I cast a line

into the deep

The thirst remains

tingling my skin

reaching beyond the body

grafting with my soul

.

Come closer

Touch and see

the color

the story

the living texture

of my life

written in footnotes

beneath the pages