25 October 2025

For Those Who Remain



Raise your glass to the Seeker, the curious one

Always looking for new adventures to spice up their existence

With unquenching thirst for new sensations

Never leaves stones unturned until the curiosity lives within.

Raise your glass to the Risk-taker,

The one who is brave to face fears and manages to win.

Even they lose the passion burns unstoppably until they prove themselves right or wrong.

Chasing the thrill of the unknown until their last breath goes out of their lungs.

Raise your glass to the Believer, the one who has undying faith even when the days are darker,

Even when the nights are cold, they keep going.

No matter how hopeless is the situation they’ve learnt to keep believing

As long as they stay true what their heart dictates them – ultimate belief in higher powers,

Confidence unmeasurable, strong will.

Raise your glass to the Builder – the one who is not afraid to turn the ashes into lush gardens,

The one skilled with hands and manner, language and presence.

The one taking the most impossible projects turning them from dreams into reality.

The one who is not afraid from the dirt on their hands, from the filth in their minds

As long as they keep creating what they deem worthy of developing.

Raise your glass to the Truth-finder – the one who never lives into the mist of what the others think is appropriate.

Their hunger for truth keeps them going into the vastness of the untold,

Their passion for transparency moves them to the boundlessness of what was never revealed.

Their longing for uncovering what lays hidden is dangerous yet captivating to be followed –

Like a play in the theater masks are falling – ugly truths on display, angry mobs tailing.

Their courage is tremendous, deserving recognition in the fake world we are currently live in.

Raise your glass to the Thriver – the one who stands still even through the harshest storms,

The one who turns each scar into a valuable lesson,

Making each loss into an art of who be reborn stronger than before.

The one who never claims they are broken even though every pain paints on their mind and body.

They do not seek for easiness but seek the deeper meaning

And in every ending they still manage to find a chance be better.

Their compass is called hope, the resilience is their form of art

And in silence they sing the song of patience.

They dance together with the chaos, maniacally laughing at the uneven odds,

They knowing endurance can make them last this long.

And with this poem my trilogy of remembrance of those who stay hidden comes to an end.

It was my pleasure to shed a light on all of you who are often left unspoken

As if your stories do not worth telling.

I raise the glass to those I may have forgotten, it was never meant to be.

I salute your strongest features, being true to yourselves in world where noise is the currency of choice.

May your inner strength quietly echo longer than the loudest pretenders try do.

To the unseen, the loyal, the unapologetically real – my final toast is to you. 

 

19 October 2025

The Drifter

 


I am walking the streets once familiar,

Filled with cherished memories

Now I feel them faded, barely existing in my head.

I loved those cobblestones streets,

Now so indifferent to me – foreign under my steps.

Once I dreamt of living there till my walk on this world comes to an end,

Now I feel nothing – mo magic, no happiness, no belonging.

You are so ancient yet so alien – I don’t see myself spending a day more here.

Unlike you I am changed,

You are so unmoved, yet I keep going.

The same bells disrupting the silence every Sunday at 7 am,

Same cold winter wind sings its songs every morning from October to December.

I tried to belong to you, I felt you crawling under my skin

Desperate to find my place under the sun, yet I was mistaken.

I carved my name into your vast history,

Yet I will stay unknown like an ancient concubine into the emperor’s harem.

Fourteen years yet I feel like I am visiting you,

Even though I know every path ant turn by heart,

My shadow engraved into the pavements as if I am part of you,

A stranger to a place I once called home,

The lights from the windows don’t feel warm.

All those benches are sitting next to the river,

I meet with friends in those cafes, yet the same places do not bring more familiarity.

I speak your language but my soul is not one with yours

My roots cannot live here, nor anywhere else – I am visitor wherever I go.

You keep your rhythm so slow paced,

My heart dances under the melody of different drums.

Your silences weigh on my heart like a boulder,

My light doesn’t shine with your intensity.

Your stillness cannot stop the movements I have been craving lately.

I hoped for understating and a happy life –

This nativity slipped through your cracks like the water spills from my hands.

You leave me shapeless, lost and forgotten between the names you love more.

The more I stay here, the more I drift into your limbo,

Caught between fake belonging and honest departure -

A familiar stranger walking the historical streets which never called my name.

I hoped the time I spent there will make you mine

But it only showed me how wrong I am – no match for these narrow passages.

You will outlast me, standing still from ancient times till now.

And I am receding – a name that never settled,

A story which I left unclaimed.