(SRA) Burn Bright

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Transcript:

I don’t remember being born.

I woke up adrift in the warm embrace of a guardian figure,

a guardian everyone wanted to emulate,

a guardian burning so bright that the rest of them appeared dim.

I desired to be that, to burn bright.

However, the longer I drifted through life, the more lonely I became.

The longer I drifted, the faster life went.

The figures I’d once admired shrunk to nothing, forlorn and lost in time.

I was alone for what seemed like millennia.

I gravitated to certain groups, then to others, all of which ignored me as I passed. 

No one attempted to reach out and welcome me into their presence.

No one cared.

No one saw the light in me.

I was a blip on a radar,

thought as nothing more. 

But an opportunity arose on the horizon.

It’s wondrous blue blossomed out of a dark future, 

a symbol of hope and enlightenment,

my chance to shine. 

I was enticed by its strong pull.

The gravity of its grand nature could not be escaped. 

I saw the blues and greens of life like never before.

No longer was I trapped in an empty void.

Warmth and happiness returned after eons of absence.

I became wanted, a spark igniting.

A shining light burst all around me in every direction.

Curious eyes looked up to me. 

They greeted me, noticing me for the first time.

Everyone pointed in awe at my visage.

I burned bright, brighter than I’d ever imagined. 

The heat of the moment touched me to my core.

I’d become the star of my own show, but I knew it wouldn’t last.

Every beginning has an ending.

I could feel the flame dying around me.

My light faded.

The eyes drifted away slowly, no longer interested as I crumbled into nothing and fell.

It had lasted only the briefest of moments, but I had burned bright like my guardian had once done.

I had shown that I, too, could achieve greatness, if only for a blink of an eye. 

I'd hoped that in that fleeting glimpse I’d given someone the inspiration that they needed;

a wish to be granted;

a chance to be seen;

the will to burn bright among the stars.

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Burn Bright is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

2022 Storyletter XPress Publishing LLC, Audio/Digital Substack Edition.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Winston Malone courtesy of Adobe Stock and Adobe Creative Cloud Express.

Music and SFX courtesy of Artlist.io

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