what survives the fire by Andra-Elena Albisoru

Years ago, I argued with a ghost

Who still had breath and borrowed time.

He spoke of love like rented space

A room with no belongings left behind

He said, “don’t cage the heart

Don’t promise what can break”

I called it “fear”, I called it “cold”

I thought he’d chosen less than “brave”

Some hearts are temples

Some are ruins still

He stood there like a man

Who’d already paid the price

I didn’t know the cost of love

Or what was learning how to live without its light

Now I get it

Now I know

Why he kept his windows open

Why he never planted roots below

Love is a risk

A beautiful theft

It takes your future hostage

And once you’ve lost the highest flame

You learn to warm your hands instead

I found a love that didn’t shake

Didn’t ask me to be less

Trust like gravity beneath my feet

Soft, and so relentless

And I told him, half asleep one night

Like it was nothing, like a truth

“If I ever look for love again

I’ll only look for something loose”

The words fell out

And hit me hard

Like shattered glass I finally saw

I’d become the thing

I swore I’d never understand at all

Now I get it

Now I see

Companionship is armor

When your heart’s seen war too deeply

Love is a risk

It crowns you king

Then takes the throne and everything

And when you’ve touched eternity

Survival starts to look like peace

Some love burns like a holy fire

Leaves no shelter, leaves no skin

After that, you don’t chase heaven

You just want quiet to live in

So forgive me, younger me

For calling caution cowardice

Some losses don’t make you bitter

They just teach you what the limit is

Love is light

But light can blind

And once you’ve stared into the sun

You learn to walk the shade just fine

Andra E. Albisoru left her home country of Romania in 2017, moving to the Netherlands to pursue her legal studies. As a child, she loved to write, but life eventually took over, and her creativity was quietly tucked away in a forgotten corner of her mind. A year ago, she picked up the pen again and began writing about her life: her identity struggles, loneliness, love, and the rediscovery of parts of herself she thought she’d lost. She realized she had always lived a life worth writing about, and now, nothing is holding her back.