I used to count the cracks

My mind painted from above

Thoughts branched like rivers,

None of them led out

It sat in silence,

Mind like heat

Hands like restraint

It said the world was run by those who know the rules

And me, I learnt not to cry

The other wore perfume like armor

It never stayed in rooms

Where feelings happened

That one called it class

While it held the mask

It gave me all I knew

It's a pressure system,

With no show

  

And it said I was lucky

Said I was safe

Said I lived in a house where people kept face

But I know what silence does when it learns to speak

It finds the bones

Where you buried the weak

And I never got loud

Never got seen

It said I was a bright light,

That it don’t mean a thing

You learn not to shine

When your own light burns your skin

And your smile means

Survival is a win

That door was closed

Not locked,

But cold

Layered in distance,

Where freedom froze

It judged from within,

The mind protects

It knots the doubt

And tightens the text

It taught me how to obey

Before I could escape

To swallow the signal

To mistrust sound

Not bruised outside

Not scared on skin

Just

Dressed in code

A double forked road

I knew no other

Until it fractured

And when I climbed out,

The line was cut

And they said I was lucky

Said I was safe

Those walls were thick

The grounds held face

But I know what that kind of love does to the mind

Invisible,

Surgical,

Resigned

And I never got loud

Never got peace

It said I had a mind,

Half pride, half leash

You learn not to grow

When the root’s been scorched

You learn to float

Outside your form

I have half its mind

That’s the inheritance

A mirror

I can’t return

But it doesn’t have my voice

That part’s still mine

Even when it trembles

Even when it breaks

I’ll split the fracture

Tear the frame

Keep the fire,

But forget the name

It set the match,

Just to watch me burn

But I walked through the pyre,

And never turned

There’s no wisdom in pain

No prize in the hurt

But I step past its echo,

And still plant in dirt

Something better

And this time it’s mine

I’ll burn the bridge

I’ll bare the nerve

Not for revenge,

But for what I deserve

I’ll take back the breath

That fear made small

And speak like it never

Owned me at all

I’ll bury the guilt

I’ll silence the myth

I’ll weaponize

What it tried to twist

Let the drums break

What it built

Let the bloodline

Witness

What I rebuilt

It never broke me

Just sharpened the girl

I would’ve been