PAINt

PAINt

by Lolly Vieira

This piece is a confession.

A scream softened into color.

It is the truth of living inside a body that doesn’t always obey,

a heart that carries both wildfire and flood,

a spirit that rises to bloom

even when the soil is cracked.

Every brushstroke holds a pulse of pain; physical, emotional, and spiritual.

But within the fracture, there is still light.

There is still the river, dammed but not dry.

Hope leaks through in blues and golds,

in the red heartbeat of things unsaid.

This is not just about suffering,

it is about survival.

About how even when life splinters the self,

there is a holy defiance in piecing it back together.

PAINt is not a cry for rescue.

It is a record of resilience.

A reminder that pain interrupts,

but it also reveals and softens.

It is in the rupture

where something stronger begins.