XIV The Return
On return, direction, and choice
There was no arrival.
Nothing became clear
all at once.
What changed
did not announce itself.
It accumulated.
Through repetition.
Through decisions
that were not reversed.
A place was built.
A house.
A kitchen.
A room
where things continue.
Not found.
Made.
Looking back
does not reveal a plan.
Only a sequence
that held.
There were breaks.
There were losses.
There were intervals
where nothing seemed
to connect.
But something continued.
Not visibly.
Not always consciously.
Still,
it did not stop.
Return does not mean
going back.
It means remaining
without departure.
The past remains.
The languages remain.
The structures
that formed me
remain.
They no longer govern.
But they do not disappear.
What has been built
stands.
Not because collapse ended.
Because it was understood.
Continuity
is not guaranteed.
It is chosen.