Test Deserves Me

 I do not choose the test—

Yet the test embraces me like kin.
It carves its name across my days,
As if I were the one who called it in.

Live on!
Each breath, a treasure, my friend—
Though we pretend it's endless,
We fear it all must end.

Be careful where your thinking treads—
For flowers bear thorns beneath their red.
Even beauty may wound the soul,
And silence can ring louder than what’s said.

Lay your duty like stepping stones
Along the path to peace.
In every temple,
God resides in humble priests.

Hope, justice, dreams—the fruit of deeds—
Yet karma strikes where no one pleads.
It reaps the kind, the bold, the just—
And leaves their faith to gather dust.

Still, I rise—not knowing how,
But with a heart that dares to vow:
That even if the test is grim,
I will not let my soul grow dim.

Let hardship come as tides arrive—
I do not flinch; I stay alive.
For what I carry, none can take:
The will to bend, but never break.