✦ Ode to Resilience

by Aletheion Absconditus

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I want to be born old
and die young, in full vitality.

I rise from the ashes of doubt
with bones carved by battle
and a soul untouched —
like a child who still believes.

I walk among the ruins of the old world
not as one who mourns,
but as one who sows.

I carry in my eyes
the memory of the whip —
but also the gleam
of those who never bowed.

Every scar is a letter of manumission
handwritten in the ink of persistence.

I was not taught to resist —
I relearned it through every fall,
every loss not grieved
but reforged into foundation.

I am what remains when all collapses.
I am what reemerges
when no one else believes.

I am the flame that outlives the storm,
the clay that refuses to be sculpted.

I want to be born old and die young,
with the boldness of a child unafraid to fail,
and the courage of an elder
who has seen too much
to be seduced by golden chains.

For where others see end,
I see crack.
Where there are bars, I plant wings.
Where there’s a decree, I dream the alternative.

My homeland is unyielding hope.
My constitution: integrity.
And my banner is the one of lived freedom —
woven in each stubborn gesture
of one who refuses to surrender the soul.