Not to Prove, Just to Be
The Sky I Never Touched
●◇“You’re a fucking disappointment.”◇●
I chased that storm like it held salvation. Ran straight into it— thinking maybe if I stood in the center, if I braved the wind, if I let it strip me to my bones— he’d finally see me. Finally feel something.
“I’m proud of you. You did well.”
I told him once, voice trembling with belief I hadn’t yet learned to doubt, “I’ll get you the moon.”I meant it. With everything I had left.
But my wings— paper-thin, tore before I even left the ground.
Still, I dreamed him a kingdom. A castle in the clouds built from sleepless nights and scraped knees
But dreams rot when no one believes in them. The castle crumbled. The clouds blackened. And the moon I once chased? It turned on me. Became a verdict. A spotlight on everything I failed to be.Now when I look up, I don’t see hope. I see a witness. A sky that watched me break and said nothing.
-GHOSTS-
Maybe those ghosts don’t leave. But maybe they don’t have to.
Because we can walk forward. Crawl if we must. Not for them. Not to prove we were worthy all along. But because we are.Worthy. Even in the wreckage. Especially in the wreckage.
There is power— holy power— in standing before the beast that broke you and not flinching.
In taking the shame by its throat, dragging it into the light, and planting flowers in the place it tried to bury you.
And slowly— so slowly— your wings come back. Stronger. Not made of their silence anymore, but of your voice.
You rise.
Not for their gaze. Not for their praise.
But because rising feels like breath again. Because flying feels like something you finally own.
You stop performing for ghosts. You stop bleeding for crowns that were never meant for you.
You forgive the child who thought love had to be earned with pain. Who mistook silence for safety. Distance for discipline.
You were never a disappointment. You were a symphony played in a house that only heard silence.
And now?●Now, you're learning how to fly.●And this time, the sky is yours.
