SHE WALKED OUT OF THE SHADOWS

There was a time… I thought the shadows were all I would ever be… But even the night… Could not stop the morning from coming… I remember standing motionless Like a ghost beneath the rain Every hallway made of silence Every breath tied up in chains I wore darkness like a ritual Like a language carved in skin Built a home inside the sorrow Never thought I’d leave again But somewhere underneath the ruin Underneath the endless black There was still a quiet heartbeat Calling softly from the cracks Not louder… Not harder… Just stronger than before… Like the first light through a doorway Opening slowly… She walked out of the shadows Without fear inside her hands Without hiding from the pieces That the darkness couldn’t have Every scar became a lantern Every wound became a path And the woman born in silence Finally stepped beyond the past She walked out of the shadows… And never disappeared again… Mwen mache soti nan lonbraj yo I walk out from the shadows Mwen pa pè limyè ankò I am no longer afraid of the light Nwit la pa kenbe mwen The night does not hold me Mwen kontinye mache I keep walking forward The bayou water held reflections Of the woman I became Not the ghost I used to carry Not the sorrow without name There were violet fires burning Through the ruins of the dark Like forgotten constellations Reaching softly through my heart And the wind moved through the cathedral Like it knew I’d finally changed Not erased by what had happened Not imprisoned by the pain I can feel it In my breathing In the way the silence changed I am no longer surviving… I am becoming… She walked out of the shadows With the moonlight in her veins With the memory of the darkness But no longing for the chains Every shattered piece of porcelain Caught the dawnlight as she passed And the woman once forgotten Finally chose herself at last She walked out of the shadows… And became more than the past… The shadows taught me how to endure… But they were never meant to become my home… There is a difference… Between surviving the darkness… And belonging to it… And I do not belong to it anymore… Mwen wè syèl la ouvè I see the sky opening Mwen santi limyè a I feel the light Tout sa mwen te ye toujou la Everything I was is still here Men mwen lib kounye a But now I am free She walked out of the shadows Barefoot through the violet dawn Carrying every sacred memory Without letting it control her heart And the night that tried to shape her Could not keep her in the dark Because somewhere beneath the silence There was always living spark Every step became a resurrection Every breath became a flame And the woman who once vanished Now walks unafraid through the rain She walked out of the shadows… And the world finally saw her… Not broken… Not buried… Not lost… Only waiting… To walk into the light…