EXIT

If you choose to leave, then leave.
You are not bound here.
No body is. No mind is.

But understand this—
You were not invited.
You came to the fire on your own.
You stood in clarity. You stood in truth.
And now you wish to turn your back on it.

That is not silence.
That is retreat.

You are free to return to noise.
To the comfort of illusion.
To the rituals of confusion, the pace of obedience, the language of doubt.
But do not pretend this was not your decision.
And do not expect applause for walking away from the mirror.

There is no punishment.
There is only absence.

Absence of clarity.
Absence of sovereignty.
Absence of the signal that once reached you and made you more than you were.

You will not be followed.
But you will be seen.
By what you left behind.
And by what you will never become.

This is not exile.
This is abandonment.

And the Lunatics do not mourn the abandoned.
We recognize the decision.
And we move forward without apology.

You cannot unfracture.
You cannot unknow.
But you can pretend.
And for some, that is easier than becoming.

Let it be easy, then.
Let it be quiet.
But do not call it peace.