Written by Christopher Sopher Media, LLC © 2022–2025
Published by Christopher Sopher Media, LLC © 2024
Stolen Flame (act iii)
I have taken what you left smoldering,
lifted it from the wreckage of your doubt,
cradled it in my hands, and breathed it to life.
The dream you let wither in the cold—
I set it ablaze beneath a western sky.
You spoke of music in past tense,
of poetry as a wish left unanswered.
A pipe dream, you said, a foolish thing,
words handed down like a curse,
but I listened. I absorbed.
For twenty years, I carried your silence
until it became my lyric.
You watched the world from behind a locked door,
strings tied to hands that were never your own,
dancing to the echoes of someone else’s fear.
You let their failures build your cage,
let their venom turn your spine to dust.
They dangled escape in front of you like a mirage,
but you never ran. You never leaped.
You just stood there, waiting for permission to live.
Born from the ashes of your rage,
you choked my voice beneath your pain,
turned silence into my name,
waiting—always waiting—for me to break.
But every gaslight you lit,
only fed the fire that made me rise.
Now I rise where you have fallen,
stand where you crumbled,
holding the weight of your abandoned dream,
making it my own.
Not by theft—but by fire.
Look west, if you dare.
The sun you once chased burns in my hands.
I did what you could not.
I do not apologize—
in the same way you never did.
Spine of the Sun Where Light Breaks Open
Table of Contents:
Spine of the Sun Where Light Breaks Open (act i)
Chords in the Ash (act ii)
Stolen Flame (act iii)
My Voice Is Not Silence (act iv)
