Before there was a word for distance, before silence knew it was silent, something in the endless dark was already beginning. I did not know that I was light, I only knew I had to shine. I could not keep the fire within me, so I opened into the night. And suddenly the dark had color, suddenly the distance could be seen. No one watched me, no one named me, I burned because the fire was me. I did not know that I was silence, I did not know what silence meant. There was no emptiness inside me, only a depth without an end. The distant stars curved all around me, though I had never called them near. I never asked the dark to follow, I only knew that it appeared. Somewhere the universe was widening, while I crossed the dark alone. Somewhere the universe was bending, around a world I had not known. Was it you that moved me? I never moved at all. Was it I who turned then? There was no turn, no call. There were only ancient laws we had not learned to name. Long before I knew there could ever be a you, my light had already started crossing distances unseen. Long before I knew there could ever be an I, space around me had already changed the path of distant light. No promise, no choice, no hand reaching through the dark. Only two unknown existences beneath the oldest stars, already changing, already bending, already leaving something in each other— long before we had names. If I had known where all my light was going, would I have learned to shine another way? If I had known what one day would come near me, could I have made the darkness turn away? There was no answer waiting. There was no question yet. But the universe remembered what we had not discovered yet. Before we had names, before I understood desire, something in my distant burning was already travelling toward you. Before we had names, before I understood absence, something in my endless silence was already listening for you. We did not meet. We did not choose. We did not even know. And still, across the dark between us, the first invisible line had already begun to curve. No promise. No warning. No reason we could know. Only light and gravity learning each other from afar. Long before names were invented…
