The Mirror's Lament

I fear the silence too, it's deafening,

Like reconnecting with a long-lost friend.

The quiet brings a strange awakening,

As if my solitude might finally end.

But I was never truly on my own,

My private wars kept constant company.

The battlefield, my mind, my flesh and bone,

A war that rages endlessly in me.

My body, weary, longs to raise white flags,

While thoughts march on in ceaseless, grim parades.

The world outside may see my spirit sags,

But can't perceive the war behind these shades.

Am I insane to hear these phantom sounds?

Or sane because I recognize their bounds?

I am the mirror others fear to face,

Reflecting truths they'd rather leave unseen.

In me, they glimpse their own unspoken space,

Where whispers lurk and shadows intervene.

The voice was there, I swear it to be true,

Though skeptics scoff and label me unstable.

But in the silence, something breaks anew,

And I emerge, both fragile and unable

To explain this war, this peace, this strange rebirth,

Where clouds speak softly and my fears take flight.

I'm real at last, for better or for worse,

A being forged in inner day and night.

The echoes fade, but still, I stand alone,

At last awake, at last entirely my own.

_Ravi D