Wanting to rise was never about pulling you down.
It was a promise I made to myself not to live too close to the ground.
The sky does not run out of room for another star,
and my light does not need your darkness to be seen.
I do not wish for your absence, nor do I fear your shine,
yet I feel drawn to reach the farthest point my heart can touch.
And sometimes I wonder—
is it wrong to reach for my own star, if its glow makes others feel lost in the dark?

Usury is forbidden in everything except when it comes to the heart; in love, we borrow a moment of joy and spend a lifetime paying back the interest in longing. I rose from our ruins as a strong man, yet here I am, returning to you with the vulnerability of a bankrupt soul, craving just one sincere look into your eyes to settle a debt that never ends. If the heart is so rich in its capacity to endure, why does it feel so utterly impoverished in the absence of a single gaze?