I give up,
Like a fawn in a lion’s mouth.
I release my last breath for the love of the black berries I found.
In my last moment, I watch the dance of the green grass
In the wind, caresses my fur, and I wish for one last chance.
Every single attempt of mine to escape, on my mind.

I give up,
Like a bee caught in the mouth of the Venus Plant.
Patiently waiting for the happening of the end
My wings are dry, fear covers my eyes.
And the last bits of nectar, tasting more bitter with
Each time I give Venus another try.
I bid farewell to the forest.
Every single flower I touched down, holds my cries.

I give up,
Like a mother that knows, she’s holding her child for the last time.
With all the hopes and faith have been patiently knit
For every moment of a lifetime in her heart.
As the child fades away, the mother becomes lifeless.
While in the same moment, another welcomes a second one.
I give up,
Like the boxer in the corner
Towel is on the ground, bleeding,
Every hard work and every exercise flashing by.
While the coach is shouting,
“Not all is over, man up, hear me out!”
Nobody hears the sirens for the last hope he can find.
But the memory is even stronger than the mind, the seeds are planted.
Maybe for that night, maybe for a future one to come.

I say okay, I give up, slowly turning purple-white, it’s all done.
While there is a heart beating inside of me, a body that shivers,
Begging; wear something warm.
In the darkest of nights with the blinking stars,
With my stubbornness, happened many more than just once,
While there are people that can feel what I am talking about, that are still here,
I refuse to accept that giving up is a human part.
While it is made of giving but suggests the motion upward.

I give up, trying to learn how to give up.
When all I learned is that each fall leads to another top.
While I experience the depths and the peaks of my own world
with every day that goes by.
When I lose my sense of finite where the ocean meets the sky,
I breathe in, I breathe out.

We do break, but maybe like every river that births lakes,
We just do it with our tears.
We do fall, but maybe like a breathtaking body of water does,
in turn giving nothing but feeling of being alive.
We do hope, more than just for mundane joys,
like a parent naming their baby “hope”.
We do crawl, but maybe like a worm that has never been looking for the light,
and feels just right under the soil.
We do give up, only when we know it’s needed,
and only the parts we need to cut.
If only all knew the truth behind resilience
That can be found in any moment,
Only when we learn, not to only search for it in silence, on a mountain top.

Cagla Nil TAS