There were things I could not say out loud. I carried them…Mistakes…Secrets.
Versions of myself I did not know how to defend.
Shame does not shout. It lowers its head…
It covers its face.
I learned how to function while feeling exposed inside.
Overwhelmed but composed…
Crying without sound…
And breaking without witnesses…
The loudest outcry was the one no one heard.
I was not hiding from the world…
But I was really hiding from myself.