{"id":829,"date":"2025-06-16T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/2025\/06\/16\/fragments-of-frost-and-fire-episode-5-walking-the-edge-of-silence\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:02:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:02:03","slug":"fragments-of-frost-and-fire-episode-5-walking-the-edge-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/2025\/06\/16\/fragments-of-frost-and-fire-episode-5-walking-the-edge-of-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragments of Frost And Fire -Episode 5- WALKING THE EDGE OF SILENCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

 Walking the Edge Of Silence<\/p>\n

He walks
\nthe edge of things,<\/p>\n

not for thrill,<\/p>\n

but because the center holds no welcome.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

What was once a life<\/p>\n

now drags like loose thread\u2014<\/p>\n

unraveling in silence,<\/p>\n

no protest,<\/p>\n

no plea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Friends became ghosts<\/p>\n

long before they left.<\/p>\n

Family: a word<\/p>\n

too large for the absence it holds.<\/p>\n

He stopped trying to explain.<\/p>\n

They stopped trying to care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the dogs\u2014<\/p>\n

two tired shadows at his feet\u2014<\/p>\n

still follow him through wind and winter.<\/p>\n

They ask nothing.<\/p>\n

They know everything.<\/p>\n

Their breath keeps time<\/p>\n

with the broken metronome of his heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He tells himself<\/p>\n

he stays for them,<\/p>\n

and it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

He could not bear to vanish<\/p>\n

while their eyes still search the door,<\/p>\n

while their paws still trust the earth<\/p>\n

to bring him back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To leave them\u2014<\/p>\n

is to sentence the loyal<\/p>\n

to bewilderment and slow hunger.<\/p>\n

It would mark his soul<\/p>\n

with a wound that no grave could close.<\/p>\n

He would carry their pain<\/p>\n

through whatever came next.<\/p>\n

And he will not do that to them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And the stories\u2014<\/p>\n

the ones that ache behind his ribs,<\/p>\n

the ones that come in fragments,<\/p>\n

half-formed,<\/p>\n

sacred\u2014<\/p>\n

if he leaves before they\u2019re set down,<\/p>\n

if he lets them scatter<\/p>\n

as dust on the wind,<\/p>\n

they will not forgive him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They will burn.<\/p>\n

Not into ash,<\/p>\n

but into him.<\/p>\n

He will carry their fire<\/p>\n

in his marrow,<\/p>\n

an eternal blaze of almost-said<\/p>\n

and never-told.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So he waits.<\/p>\n

Not for redemption.<\/p>\n

Not for rescue.<\/p>\n

But for the right endings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He will not go<\/p>\n

while fur brushes his skin<\/p>\n

and old eyes still seek his face.<\/p>\n

He will not go<\/p>\n

while words still pace the cage<\/p>\n

of his chest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But when the last paw stills,<\/p>\n

and the final page is written\u2014<\/p>\n

when the dogs sleep,<\/p>\n

and the stories find their names\u2014<\/p>\n

he will know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And he will go,<\/p>\n

not with rage,<\/p>\n

not with sorrow,<\/p>\n

but with the hush of one<\/p>\n

who gave all he had<\/p>\n

before the silence.<\/p>\n

\n

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 Walking the Edge Of Silence He walks the edge of things, not for thrill, but because the center holds no welcome. What was once a life now drags like loose thread\u2014 unraveling in silence, no protest, no plea.   Friends became ghosts long before they left. Family: a word too large for the absence it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Fragments of Frost And Fire -Episode 5- WALKING THE EDGE OF SILENCE - Lawrence Nault","description":" Walking the Edge Of Silence He walks the edge of things, not for thrill, but because the center holds no welcome. What was once a life now drags like loos"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,278,279,221,284,281,282,280,46,283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-writing","category-dark-poetry","category-dogs","category-free-verse","category-healing","category-hope","category-isolation","category-loyalty","category-poetry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawrencenault.me\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}