Not only flesh — but sun, but moon.
The hush of stars, the whisper of oceans.
What is seen, and what is unseen.
All of it held here, in this vessel that beats.

Joy? It does not dance — it glimmers.
Like a lamp burning inside the soul.
Yet solitude is here too, not shouting —
It sits beside me, quiet, waiting.

Confusion is a restless sea.
Waves striking against what I thought was knowing.
But — what if revelation hides in the storm?

The heart, when it breaks, opens fissures.
Fissures that ache.
And yet from them, life insists on rising.

There is a moment of peace:
a thread of water running gentle,
reminding me beauty does not vanish.

Each emotion is a passage.
Each sorrow, each joy, a door.
A door into the secret chambers of being.

I discover: I am not alone.
The universe folds itself inside me.
I am the universe. I am the body.
I am the within.

©️Beatriz Esmer