Rise Beyond The Shadows

(From the novel “The Adornment of Shadows”)

I am not the words they etched into my skin,

nor the shadows cast across my light.

I am the quiet after the storm that rebuilds,

the breath of dawn breaking through the longest night.

For too long, I adorned whispered lies,

wrapped like chains around my heart.

But even the darkest scars will fade,

and within every fracture is a new start.

Beneath the dust of cruelty’s weight,

a spark still lives, fierce and true.

I will no longer be defined or broken;

I reprieve every battle I’ve fought through and through.

I stand tall on the ashes of who I was,

rising beyond the words that left me small.

I am more than a shattered reflection,

I am every rise, every defining fall.

The voices are fading now, a mere distant hum,

a memory lost to tides of grace.

I reclaim my name, my spirit, my worth

I stand as the light that cannot be erased.

In the quiet spaces where the shadows fade,

I find the strength I hid, the courage unknown.

I am whole, I am here, I am free at last,

no longer bound by the echoes I faced alone.

I stand now as the lion,

no longer among the sheep.

This amity that remains unwavering,

I pray my soul shall keep.

Author