You

Many years have slipped beneath the tide of time, yet still I remember. I was just a youth, standing high above the world from Ocean Towers in Downtown Kingston, gazing out toward the pier, when my eyes caught sight of her. A woman, moving with eerie calm, made her way down Duke Street. There was something in the way she walked , not hurried, not lost, but as if drawn by an unseen force, a quiet resolve no one else could hear. She reached the water’s edge and, without pause, stepped in. And then she went under. My heart seized. Without thinking, I threw myself down the flights of stairs, taking them three, four at a time, frantic, breathless, desperate to save her from herself. But I was too late. My effort, though full of fire, was futile. She had already surrendered to the sea. I was only seventeen, maybe eighteen. Too young to understand. But old enough to be haunted. I stood on that shoreline, wind in my face, searching for something, anything that could make sense of what I had just seen. Why would she do that? Was it fear that led her into the water? A mind unraveling beneath too much weight? Or maybe, just maybe, it was her final cry, a silent scream to a world that had long since stopped listening. To this day, I don’t know what tomorrow holds. No one does. But this, I’ve come to understand: I owe it to myself to rise. From every fall. To blaze a path forward, even if it cuts through shadow and sorrow. To carve something worthy from the ruins. No matter how far I have been flung... through fire, through flood, through hurricane and mud, now this is hell. And yes, I’ve known its fire and brimstone I’ve learned this: Not a brother man can save you. Blood thicker than water ,,but at times, it doesn’t count. Dracula drinking blood, fingers sore, do you know the scorè? Elusive, illusion , dragon slim or stout. Shut the mouths, there's a way out. Even if I have to claw... kicking in every door, crawl, bleeding and bruised I will find out. Because somewhere beyond the flame, there is life. And I intend to walk toward it. Because I know this truth.... I am nothing until I make myself something. You do not possess the power to do it for me. Only, and solely, me.