who said this must be all or nothing.

 

He turned away, and suddenly she thought about the old children's story, where the stupid girl opens the box that God gave her, and all the evils of the world fly out, except Hope, which stays at the bottom; and she wondered what Hope was doing in there in the first place, in with all the bad things. Then the answer came to her, and she wondered how she could've been so stupid. Hope was in there because it was evil too, probably the worst of them all, so heavy with malice and pain that it couldn't drag itself out of the opened box.

— K. J. Parker, Sharps

————————

ctrl z
desperate to undo
fighting to erase
remnants from the past

fragments
tug softly
fade gently
too deeply imprinted

whispers
faint lingering
quiet haunting
spooked

mirages
disguised as promises
dragging desire
landing like comets

traces
lurking in the shadows
trembling in the hands
searching for a way forward

ctrl y
tell me why
yearning for a redo
caught between the two

stretched fingers
reaching for the z and y
the gaps that never close
the stardust that never settles

choices
making peace
folding into the space
sinking into the gravity

————

learning to rest in what remains
letting the present hold fully
choosing to stay in the orbit
finding enough in what is.

————————

M.

but i'm still caught below
and i'll never let you know
no, i can't tell you nothing.