Vessel and Illness

 Vessel and Illness

Vessel:

There was a time,  

when my skin sang  

like the morning  

and my bones whispered  

promises of forever.  

Illness:  

I came like a shadow  

creeping in,  

silent,  

until I was  

all you could see. 

Vessel:

You took the air  

from my lungs,  

the strength  

from my limbs,  

left me gasping  

for the days  

I used to know—  

you anchored in my veins.  

I felt you in my mornings  

when getting out of bed  

was climbing a mountain  

I never trained for.  

You whispered in my ear,  

told me I was weak,  

made my strength your myth.  

Illness:

I am not the villain  

you believe me to be.  

I am the storm,  

the reckoning,  

the teacher  

you never asked for.  

Vessel:

You took my dreams  

and painted them  

in shades of grey.  

You turned my mornings  

into battles,  

my nights  

into haunted echoes.  

Illness: 

I gave you silence  

to find your voice,  

pain  

to discover your strength,  

limitations  

to teach you  

the art of stillness.  

Vessel:  

I learned to live  

in the spaces  

between the hurt,  

to find joy  

in small victories,  

hope  

in the promise  

of another sunrise.  

Illness:

You are more  

than your suffering—  

a garden  

in the desert,  

a light  

in the abyss.  

Vessel: 

You are the dark,  

and I am the dawn.  

We dance  

a dance of survival,  

a balance  

of struggle  

and grace.  

- Aspen Greenwood