The Desert: Where Everything Falls Apart
512 Words
It has happened. What I feared the most has come to pass.
I am lost, alone in the middle of the desert of my life.
I walk endlessly, hoping to find what I seek, but nothing appears.
Around me, emptiness stretches as far as the eye can see.
A labyrinth with no exit, an exile without end.
My heart is arid, dried up by years of solitude.
Deprived of connection, of love, of human warmth,
I have become a withered branch, a shadow of myself,
With no hope of rebirth.
So, I write.
I write to leave a trace, to bear witness to my existence,
Even if no one has ever noticed it.
The days pass, frozen in stillness.
Nothing changes.
Everything within me is trapped: my emotions, my energy, my breath of life.
A sealed volcano, ready to explode, but imprisoned in its own ashes.
The sun is fading,
I walk toward the night of my existence.
A storm rages within me,
I long to scream out my despair,
But the desert is deaf, and the silence swallows me whole.
I collapse from exhaustion and fall asleep,
Knowing that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday.
The night is endless.
A black veil imprisons me,
And my mind races without rest.
Then, in my sleep, a dream emerges.
A beach.
A man, long gone from this world, places his hand on my shoulder.
He looks at me, smiling.
Other voices whisper my fate, unknown even to me.
When I wake, darkness still surrounds me.
But in the distance, a star shines.
Sirius.
It watches me, luminous and powerful.
A message?
Must I keep moving forward despite the storm?
Will something beautiful ever come into my life?
The star slowly gives way to dawn.
On the horizon, a glow dances over the vastness.
The sea.
A mirage of azure, a forgotten hope.
I gaze at this vision, losing myself in the illusion of elsewhere.
For a moment, everything I have ever desired seems within reach.
A sailboat appears.
It carries the dream of a life I never lived.
Then it vanishes.
And the desert reclaims its hold.
I continue walking under the merciless sun,
Haunted by the painful memory of an unfinished happiness.
To love and be loved, to be protected, to be someone’s priority…
Is it too much to ask?
Watching others love while I remain alone,
That is the greatest suffering of all.
My throat is dry.
Only my tears still flow.
I can no longer bear this torment.
Fatigue overtakes me,
I fall to my knees,
Crushed by the weight of years of silence,
Gasping under the absence of a voice that was never heard.
My head spins,
My eyes burn.
And suddenly,
A light erupts before me.
Vast. Blinding.
A star descended to earth,
Offering me an escape.
I step through it.
And everything disappears.
The pain fades.
The desert is no more.
I am elsewhere.
I turn back one last time,
A distant smile on my lips,
And I leave this old life behind.
Toward the light.
- Writer
