A Full Day

Life compressed into a single day: from dawn's boundless possibility through noon's defining crisis to midnight's final reckoning, where choices return as monsters or gifts.

DAWN

Life is like a full day.
You wake at dawn,
with all the possibilities of the world
resting at the tip of your fingers �"
so close,
so full,
so exciting.

The day blooms
like a wild hibiscus
shooting its petals into the sun’s first rays.

Your luck follows you around
like a sunflower follows the sun.
Each decision feels right �"
like water poured on sand,
absorbed,
then forgotten under the noon heat.

At dawn,
you have the whole world.
You have the opportunity
to waste,
to break,
to destroy,
to build,
to keep,
to store.
You have all the time.

---

NOON

But then comes 11:59 a.m.
It doesn’t arrive the same for everyone.
Sometimes it comes when you are young �"
when people leave you to walk alone,
when suddenly you need a stick to stand,
when a wheelchair seems easier than your legs.

That’s when a decision awaits �"
a defining one.
Not as easy as waking before the first light,
nor as careless as not waking at all.
It’s a choice between living and dying,
standing or crawling,
rising or falling flat on your back.

You have sixty seconds.
Then it’s 12 noon �"
and there’s no going back.
You either push through the heat,
or die under it.

Decisions are two-faced coins:
Head �" the heat that bends metal,
reshapes the world,
cooks something new.
Tail �" the same heat that kills you,
boiling your insides
until you’re nothing but
an overcooked bowl of pasta.

Decisions others make for you
can be ropes that pull you forward
through rocks and mud,
or chains that drag you backward
through the same path.

Those strong enough,
skin as hard as scales,
soles tight and cracked �"
are not the ones who make it.

Those weak,
light as a feather,
unstable as water �"
don’t make it either.

Because when the sun comes hitting,
no matter the position you choose to take �"
to bend,
to stand,
to sit,
to squat,
to lie down �"
your head will always be the first point of contact.

Only those with a tough mind,
a strong will,
a hardened heart,
survive.

No matter the choice you made at 11:59 a.m.,
you must stand by it.
The path may change,
the direction may shift,
but if the person stays firm,
the destination remains the same.

---

DUSK

Good evening �"
the greeting given to all survivors
walking through the gates of temporary victory,
bags filled with accomplished dreams,
castles once floating now grounded in reality.

Some carry full bags,
some little,
some none at all.

Now comes the time to rest �"
or so it seems.
For the real battle begins at dusk.

The choices you made at dawn,
the ones you made at noon,
and those made at dusk,
return to you.

They come bearing gifts �"
or wearing masks.

Some smile too wide �"
don’t be deceived.
Some look fierce �"
be relieved,
they won’t strike.

Dusk is when you re-chew your choices,
when life vomits stones
you cannot swallow again,
or wood your body rejects,
or good food
with poison deep within.

You have little time
to make it all right.

---

MIDNIGHT

11:59 p.m.
Sixty seconds left �"
to rest in peace,
or be torn to pieces
by the decisions that grew
into howling, growling, hungry monsters
bearing gifts
that look like blessings
but bite like curses.

Being weak will get you ripped apart.
Being strong gives you one more minute to live.
You’ll close your eyes forever �"
but the strong will at least have
a body to be laid.

Only a mind matured
by the sharp claws of experience
can put those monsters to rest.

12:00 a.m. knocks at the door.
Time to rest.
Time to shut your eyes.
You’ve given your best.

The strong-willed will sleep in peace.
The weak will be buried in pieces.
The strong at least will have a body to be laid.

Life is a full day �"
dawn,
noon,
dusk.
The weak can’t survive it.
The strong can’t live through it.
The only thing that reaches midnight
is an unbroken mind.