Stay quiet

Stay small

Stay where they left you

I learned the language of closed doors

Breathing slow across the floor

Counting cracks above the bed

Memorizing what you said

Every warning dressed as care

Every kindness laid as snare

I was taught to hold my breath

Like silence somehow stops the threat

Don’t move

Don’t speak

There’s a sound beneath my ribs

Something scratching to exist

If I open up my throat

Will the past come flooding through

If I finally let it out

Will it sound too much like you

I’ve been buried in the quiet

I’ve been folded to the core

You can try to keep me under

I am not yours anymore

Never more

Teeth in the timeline cut in the grain

Pain got a pattern that repeats in the brain

Step where they told me stay in the frame

Smile on command while absorbing the strain

Low-level panic under my skin

Locked in a loop that I didn’t begin

Every red flag dressed like a friend

Every sharp edge filed to pretend

I kept the peace

I kept the pose

I kept it buried in my throat

Now the pressure finally slips

Something breaking past my lips

If I open up my throat

Will the past come flooding through

If I finally let it out

Will it sound too much like you

I’ve been buried in the quiet

I’ve been folded to the core

You can try to keep me under

I am not yours anymore

Never more

You called it love

You called it care

But love should never feel like this

I remember everything

You pressed the silence into me

Folded fear into my sleep

Taught my body how to freeze

Just to give yourself some peace

But pressure builds in hidden rooms

And buried voices still consume

You don’t own me

You don’t own me

Never more

Hear that ringing in the air

That’s the sound of my despair

Turning into something sharp

Something finally falling apart

If I open up my throat

Let the whole world hear the truth

I am done protecting ghosts

I am done protecting you

I was buried in the quiet

I was folded to the core

You can try to drag me under

I am not yours anymore

Never more

You should have listened

You should have known

Some voices don’t stay buried

Nevermore