This week’s Poem-Echo does not argue.
It does not defend or oppose.
Luna moves it differently.
If love can burn without boundaries,
if devotion can slowly dissolve the one who gives it,
then perhaps there is another way to hold the flame.
Before we speak further about limits, let us sit with what fire remembers.
I’ll leave you there.
What Fire Learned
by Luna
Before knowing love,
flickering embers already breathed within,
glowing low like coals
resting in patient soil.
No hands fed them.
No voice called their name.
Still, warmth spread quietly,
settling deep within my core.
Eros arrived as wildfire,
flames racing across open fields.
My young heart ran toward its brightness,
embracing passion’s smoldering heat,
scorching, molten, and unguarded.
Every touch opened skies.
Every spark promised forever.
Then came the drowning.
Salt filled my mouth.
Waves flooded my voice, my light
as I folded inward,
like wings shielding a fragile underside.
Deep beneath this tsunami,
embers waited,
glistening where no storm could reach.
With trembling hands, I found her,
self-love curled like a forlorn animal in winter,
hinting at her sacred incandescent soul.
Gently, I gathered her,
tending her violet flame,
willing warmth to return,
breath by breath.
While cherishing her, love rose differently,
steady as tide returning to faithful shore,
clear as morning light touching every scar
without asking me to forget my own pain or shape.
Amor came close without consuming,
warm as sunlight resting on bare skin.
Acceptance followed
moving between us,
soft as silk or down.
Twenty-seven orbits around the sun now,
and still his touch arrives as first light,
awakening something ancient,
not devotion, nor blind,
but something brave,
and self-accepting.
A river moves through me now,
slow and enduring,
its current tracing my true name,
refusing shores that would unmake me or him.
Embers breathe freely in the deepest chambers,
warmth lingering in memory and flesh.
Self-love keeps vigil there,
steadily feeding unconditional love’s flame,
and mutual respect’s steel fulcrum,
its reach outlasting the longest night.
Love rests here now,
bright as beacons,
refusing extinction,
alive,
awake,
and balanced.
©️ 2026 Latinx Bridges. All rights reserved.
When love feels intense, do you protect your embers — or surrender them?
About the Author — Luna
Luna is an Afro-Latina writer and former professor who weaves memoir, folklore, and quiet magic into stories that bridge cultures and generations. Through Latinx Bridges, she explores identity, migration, faith, memory, and the everyday moments where something sacred quietly unfolds.
She writes with immersion and honesty, inviting readers to feel life as it happens, not as it is later explained. Her work moves between English and Spanish the way real lives do: fluidly, without apology.
Her work offers:
reflections rooted in lived experience
cultural depth without performance
a space where memory, heritage, and imagination coexist
For writers, she also shares thoughtful guidance on craft and voice.
For readers, she offers something rarer — presence.
If it works speaks to you, join the journey.
Stay in the Room for more!
With clarity,
The Mirror Room
Odel A.





Thanks so much Odel. I really enjoyed our collaboration.
Thanks for these beautiful images of love Luna