WHEN THE MASK OPENED ITS EYES

I thought the mask was silence… But silence was only sleeping… And somewhere beneath the stillness… Something opened its eyes… There was a pulse beneath the porcelain A distant rhythm in the dark Like buried fire under frozen water Like dying embers finding sparks I wore the shape of quiet mourning I wore the weight of every ghost But something deep beneath the surface Refused to disappear completely most Every crack became a doorway Every fracture learned to breathe And in the chambers of the silence Something ancient awakened in me Not rage… Not sorrow… Not the hunger I once knew… Just a voice beneath the stillness Saying… “Become.” When the mask opened its eyes The darkness finally answered me Not with fear Not with ruin But with the truth beneath my skin I was never truly buried I was waiting underneath For the moment silence shattered And something living looked through me When the mask opened its eyes… So did I… Mwen leve anba sann yo I rise beneath the ashes Mwen tande vwa mwen ankò I hear my voice again Mask la pa kache mwen The mask does not hide me Li reveye mwen It awakens me The bayou water turned to mirrors Every ripple showed a face Not the woman built from sorrow But the one time could not erase The moonlight moved across the antlers Silver dripping from the bone And every step through blackened water Felt less like exile… less alone There were fireflies inside the distance Like spirits learning how to stay Not trapped inside forgotten memory But guiding me toward another way I carried shadows Until they softened I carried grief until it changed And somewhere inside the silence I heard my own name… When the mask opened its eyes The veil between the worlds grew thin Every wound became a language Every scar let the light in I was not the fear I carried I was not the empty grief I was something still becoming Something waking underneath When the mask opened its eyes… So did I… Still water… Violet dawn… Breathing slowly… Moving on… I can feel the spirit shifting I can feel the silence break Like the earth beneath me turning Like a soul beginning to wake Mwen pa dòmi ankò I no longer sleep Mwen wè limyè a I see the light Mask la louvri je li The mask opened its eyes E mwen fèt ankò And I am born again When the mask opened its eyes The night no longer felt the same Every piece of broken porcelain Caught the dawnlight in its veins I can walk beyond the shadows Without abandoning the past I can carry every fragment Without becoming what I lacked And the woman in the silence The one hidden deep beneath Was never gone… Never fading… Only waiting… To breathe… The mask opened its eyes… And the world finally saw me…