14 Years

Fourteen years...
Fourteen years...

Fourteen winters melt to rain
Since the threshold lost my name.
The house that held my earliest breath
Stands ghost-like on the plains of death

Possessions scattered, turned to dust,
A sudden shattering of trust.

The silence where the laughter played,
A heavy, hollow MASQUERADE...

Oh, the days were dark, the nights alight
Filled with memories and trauma's bite
Silence screamed in every space
Lost everything without a trace
But deep inside, a burning ember
A fire in the heart, I still remember

Then four walls held us, thin and bare,
Breathing thin and borrowed air.
The architecture of the face
Forgot its smiles, that fleeting grace.

Upon survival's bitter tide.
That inner fire, grew deep inside,

But echoes haunt the space between:
Those faces lost, those might-have-beens

The days were dark, the nights alight
Filled with memories and trauma's bite
Silence screamed in every space
Lost everything without a trace
But deep inside, a burning ember
A fire in the heart, I still remember

They say I was the happiest soul
Before the grief started taking its toll
Laughter echoed, bright and free
But that's not who looks back at me
Now the darkest heart beats in my chest
Putting resilience to the test

Oh, the days were dark, the nights alight
Filled with memories and trauma's bite
Silence screamed in every space
Lost everything without a trace
But deep inside, a burning ember
A fire in the heart, I still remember

A ray of hope...
That fire in the heart... burning low
Fourteen years... learning how to grow
Still learning how to grow...