The Survival of Venus

The horizon seems farther than yesterday, yet we keep on looking at it anyway.

Today, the setting sun burns into an orange blaze: the tempered glass of your snorkeling mask competes with the windows of the grandiose church you once sang in.

Right now, you stand. Like a mythological deity against the background of a gradient deep sea green sky. You ask: Why?
And you know how the answer presents itself in silence.

The heavens and the ground embrace you like how you learned to hold them in your arms.

Your coarse hair knows the value of growth and hears the song of your beating heart.

Your breathing echoes and expands.
Like the roots of an uprooted tree – still thriving, even after an impossible storm.