by aeriS wren

Aeris Wren, *Lightness*, digital, 2025. Courtesy of the artist.

Lightness is a variable

AERIS | AUG 2025 | Issue 48

Darkness is a quiet character, a black consuming presence of silent noise, sharpening our senses for the dullest of motions, the trickle of action.

But lightness? Lightness is a variable; love reacts, and life results.

Life has returned to this world, and it is in the air and the wind and the trees; it smells of coldness and smoke and insurmountable love that envelops the world in a soft blanket of fog, so comforting in this dreary city.

I take a breath and step outside of the flat with a preemptive brace against the odd summer chill. I find inexplicable comfort in knowing that this feeling will always return at this time of year: the damp asphalt, yellowing grass, and tight hugs; dewdrops and rain, rosy cheeks, and the notion that to feel alive must be the only true desire of all creatures. I for one do never wish to be without love’s brace, without her, and the freezing air does not cut me, but instead holds me even higher in its extremity.

I am in love with the idea of life: of the tiny pieces that mould together coincidentally in the form of a human being, of the eternal essence of complete individuality through our intricate design. I will tell her; I will make her understand, the integral role she plays in my life, the need I have for her to slow down and block out the troubles that pick at her; and I need her to know when she does come to a halt, I am here to take her into my arms and never to let her feel so alone again.

What do they matter, this foolish Empire and its demands? We are not machines, and I cast away that notion I once welcomed. She is with me, and we will teach each other to embrace the sights that have no surface meaning, for they, above all, know what it truly is to hear the melodies of the river and the percussion of the rain, the laughter of the flowers that cast out their sorrow through their shadows.

I will tell you this, you, who are the love of my life and my soul:

Cast out the thoughts of enemies, and fill yourself to the brim with hugs and kisses and closed eyes and soft touches. Feel the wind as it howls and its cold, cold gusts and think not of your troubles and fears; but, instead, of that moment exactly, and how one day you will remember not the wind, but the love to which you clung so fiercely, so passionately, so righteously: because you are alive, and oh, how perfect you are.

Aeris Wren is a transmasculine neurodivergent writer who is deeply in love with his girlfriend. He wholeheartedly believes in pouring one's whole soul into things that will never satisfy the Empire, but regardless, continues to highlight the presence of love. And isn't that enough?