1. Cast Away

​

Close the file.
Get on with life.

 

Under the cover, a piece cut out begins to rise.

Like a germ, it grows silently.
It persists in the dark.

It learns the rhythms of neglect.
It thrives on what is not spoken.

 

It settles into habits.
Into the way decisions are made
without reflection.

 

It slips into preferences,
into what feels familiar,
into what is chosen again
without knowing why.

 

It shapes what is avoided,
what is postponed,
what is explained away as coincidence.

 

It enters relationships quietly 
not as memory,
but as tone.

As expectation.
As a readiness or a recoil
felt in the body before thought arrives.

 

It directs energy
what is pursued with urgency.
what is left untouched.

 

It does not announce itself as influence.
It passes as instinct.
As character.
As fate.

​

And yet,
what was cast away
has begun to find

its way into the light.