And that was how I fell. I fell for an eternity and yet with the brutal speed of a single heartbeat, dreaming entire lives, thick, heavy romances, in the half-second it took for the air to claim me. But the floor… the floor was a lie that never arrived.

I fell, instead, into the breathing geometry of those I have loved. They were the ones who had once slid into my life with the silence of shadows, fitting against my skin as if they were the missing pieces of my own mystery. I looked around and saw them: the glorious, jagged souls, each carrying the weight of their own story like a holy wound.

It occurs to me now, in this madness we call a world, that perhaps no one ever truly strikes the earth. We spin. We are frantic, unmoored things hurtling through a dark, silent space, but there is always a “them.” A finale that is not an end, but a collision. We spin wildly, losing ourselves, only to be caught in the waiting arms of the other.

©️ Beatriz Esmer