Modern Romanticism

Ultimately,
you’ve survived
much more than
most do,
depriving yourself
of a step or two
to take a single breath,
to keep yourself
far from the reach
of the hand of death.

But I see
more than what
you might,
while you’re there
bleeding until
your bare wounds
are a presentation
for an indifferent,
soundless world.

Please be it,
go beyond to be
what you were
meant to be.

Instead of surviving
the aftereffects
of this wreckage,

instead of decorating
your fortress with
the fading residue,

be what you might,
be always you.

Life is a power
that goes far outside
the frail meaning
of a heartbeat.