No Shame in Survival
Read more poetry by Britt Wolfe
Survival has never been
the elegant story
history prefers to tell.
It is seldom heroic.
Rarely graceful.
More often,
it is a collection of impossible decisions
made beneath impossible circumstances,
where every available choice
carries its own wound.
There are storms
that cannot be outrun.
Battles
that cannot be won.
Rooms
where silence becomes
the safest language still available.
There are days
when endurance
looks remarkably similar
to surrender.
From a distance,
it is easy to imagine
braver choices.
Stronger words.
Quicker departures.
Bolder resistance.
Distance has always mistaken itself
for wisdom.
Danger has always spoken
a different language.
Only the heart
that beat beneath the weight of it
could ever know
what survival required.
Sometimes survival
is leaving.
Sometimes
it is staying
until leaving
becomes possible.
Sometimes
it is speaking.
Sometimes
it is waiting
for a moment
when speaking
will not cost everything.
The world
has an unfortunate habit
of confusing survival
with permission,
as though enduring harm
must somehow mean
accepting it.
Nothing could be further
from the truth.
The branch
that bends beneath the snow
has not surrendered.
It has simply chosen
spring.
There is no shame
in making peace
with another sunrise.
No shame
in carrying scars
earned honestly.
No shame
in surviving
by whatever honest means
survival demanded.
Because life
has never asked
for perfection.
Only persistence.
And there is a quiet dignity
in every soul
that refused
to disappear.
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Poetry by Britt Wolfe:
There are moments in life when every choice carries a cost, and simply reaching tomorrow becomes the greatest achievement of all. This poem reflects on the quiet courage of survival, and the compassion owed to every difficult decision made in its name.