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 and storyteller who believes in the quiet power of words.
My first book, QUIET FLAME
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