One Mercury Year 1. Orbit of Ashes I began as fire, burning too close to the sun. Ash fell on my shoulders, but the weight became wings. Loss dressed itself in silver, and whispered: “Start again.” 2. Retrograde Heart Every step forward pulled me back— Mercury laughing, my heart spinning in reverse. The map of desire redrawn in rivers of doubt, but still, I walked. 3. Messenger of Shadows I met the messenger in my sleep— not a god, but a mirror of my wounds. He spoke of truth carved in bone, of how every wound sings when kissed by light. 4. Joyful Despair I learned to dance with joy in one hand, despair in the other. Love grew in the fracture, like moss on broken stone. Loss was not the ending, but the soil. 5. Winged Silence The year turned like a wheel, and silence became my companion. Not absence— but the music of unspoken trust. I held my own voice until it grew wings. 6. Alchemy of Distance Distance was a crucible. Every separation refined me, like ore becoming metal. I bled away the false, until only love— raw, quiet, and unflinching— remained. 7. Mercury Year (Finale) One orbit, and I am not the same. The child became a wanderer, the wanderer a witness. I carry my losses as lanterns, my loves as constellations. The next year waits, and I am ready— not perfect, but alive.
