What the Light Took
A short piece about survival disguised as illumination
I was intact
before you.
***
Not whole.
Just
unbroken.
***
The dark knew me.
It kept its distance.
***
Then you arrived
looking like an answer.
***
Low glow.
Steady pulse.
***
Something to move toward
without asking why.
***
I adjusted my life
around you.
***
Called it alignment.
***
You taught me
how to stand closer
than safety allows.
***
Your warmth
rewrote my instincts.
***
Fear learned
a new name.
***
I reached
because you never told me
not to.
***
Pain felt earned.
Necessary.
Almost holy.
***
Light screamed.
***
Then collapsed.
***
No warning.
No goodbye.
***
Just absence
where certainty had lived.
***
I stood
holding the memory
of heat.
***
Skin altered.
Vision sharpened.
***
The dark returned
but it no longer lied.
***
I understood then—
***
Some lights don’t guide.
They consume.
***
And survival
is learning
how to glow
without burning yourself alive. 🌑🔥
*****
If this poem stayed with you, there are others waiting nearby.
Different moods. Same pulse.
About the Creator
Aarsh Malik
Poet, Storyteller, and Healer.
Sharing self-help insights, fiction, and verse on Vocal.
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