Against the Ashes

I woke up

In a skyline stitched by smoke

Counting the ruins

Like lines on my palm

If time is a river

I tried to choke

It carried my fear

But it carried me on

I carry a crown

That was shaped by heat

Learning to hold it

Without being burned

The city remembers

Beneath my feet

Every step forward

A lesson I learned

We do not have to

Outrun the thunder

We just have to

Breathe through the sound

Against the ashes

We rise like dawn

Hands interlaced

Till the night is gone

If the past returns

Like a fatal hymn

We will change the key

And sing again

I will be your calm

When the world will not mend

You will be my light

That does not end

Love is the force

That remakes the day

I learned to glow

Instead of blaze

We do not have to be

What we were

We can be

Who we choose right now

If I fracture

Will you hold the seam

I will gild the cracks

With a golden gleam

If I falter

Will you guide my aim

I will speak your name

Till the storm grows tame

If the sky tries

To fall again

We will lift it up

With these two hands

Not made of ruin

Made of return

Not here to wither

Here to learn