August 2025
by, Samantha Syrnich TLC
Some do not climb ladders—
they climb
people.
Boots pressed upon backs
like rungs—
faces unseen
once the skyline clears.
I’ve felt it—
the reaching,
the charm that mimics warmth
until ascent is complete,
and I vanish
beneath their view.
No goodbye.
No crumbs.
No glance at the soul
that steadied their footing.
I once called it betrayal.
Now—
I call it
information.
I rise.
They climbed me—
not knowing I was rooted
in a thousand unnamed women
who burned before me,
whose prayers are the sparks
in my lungs.
There is fire in my breath,
memory in my wings—
and I will rise,
not to chase them,
but to crown the sky
with a flame
all my own.
I rise.
Because even if I stand alone—
I stand lit by everything they tried to extinguish.
⸻
My Reflection:
“This piece was born from lived truth.
It is not just a poem—
it is a reckoning.
It speaks for every time I was stepped on,
used as a rung,
then forgotten once the climb was done.
For the women who were the foundation
but never the celebration.
For the ones who burn quietly…
and rise anyway.
This is for us.
This is for me.
And if you have ever felt used, overlooked, or extinguished—
no matter who you are—
then this flame is for you, too.”
⸻
🎧 Musical Pairing: Ghost in Those Shadows by Wicked Paradox (feat. Meghanne Storey & Raymond Hayden)
Why I chose this song:
There’s a reverence in this piece that mirrors the rise in my poem.
Meghanne Storey’s voice—soft as smoke, yet piercing with truth—feels like the echo of every woman who was stepped over and forgotten, yet still sings.
Raymond Hayden’s keys move like memory—measured, aching, beautiful.
The quiet ache in this song holds the same energy as my line:
“I stand lit by everything they tried to extinguish.”
It made me feel like my own ashes were glowing again.
Like I wasn’t just rising—
I was remembering why I burned.
That’s why I chose this.
To pair sound with soul.
To let the music finish the sentence
my poem began.
🎨 My Artwork: ‘Phoenix Does Not Forget”
🕊️🩵🔥🖋️ — Samantha Syrnich TLC
The Phoenix Quill: Words Born of Fire, Inked in Truth 