THE GAME I WON'T GIVE UP

I sit with a board and a hollowed chest,

Carving my losses into my flesh.

The dreams I had — they're cracking thin,

A thousand wars I couldn't win.

The pieces fall like broken teeth,

My hands shake cold beneath the grief.

How many nights must I pretend

That losing here won’t be my end?

I lie to myself: "One more fight,"

While dying slowly, night by night.

The world moves fast, I stay the same—

A ghost still chasing a dying flame.

But even ghosts remember pain,

And even ashes dream of rain.

So I'll drag my ruins through the fire,

With shattered hope, with wrecked desire—

Because quitting’s easy, staying's war.

And I was made for something more.