When Echoes Guard the Soul

Pain struck first, then numbness grew,

A pulse still beats but nothing new.

The heart, a guard, so cold, so still,

Once fierce with fire, now iron will.

The wildest flame turned frost by time,

Once sang with life, now speaks in mime.

Protection born from too much loss,

Built of scars, with steel embossed.

Not absence, rather battle-won,

A silence forged beneath no sun.

The cost of care once overpaid,

Left warmth behind in love’s crusade.

So still it stands, a frozen peak,

Not broken, just too tired to speak.

But deep beneath the rigid shell,

A story lives it cannot tell.