After the Dust Settles

And finally, the chaos ended the noise, the aching.
Love should not feel like survival.
In its place, peace began to grow, gently, almost unnoticed.
But something lingers in between.
She chose herself-
walked away from the storm, back to the familiar quiet that brings her peace.
Still, there is a struggle inside: a gentle conflict that tries to creep back in-old patterns, old ghosts disguised as comfort.
She lets the wind tangle her thoughts, loses herself in shifting light, in silence, in sky,
in the rhythm of the world without noise.
There, she remembers
who she was before survival.
And who she can be