What I Didn't Say Out Loud

An intimate confession from the back of the throat— where silence speak louder than love ever did.

---

I Peeled myself open

In the quiet

so, you wouldn't hear me bleed.

I didn't want the echo of your voice

to drown out

what my silence screamed—

that I still wanted you,

even when my back was turned

and my eye were dry.

You made ruin feel like ritual,

and I mistook it for intimacy.

I memorized your damage

like scripture

thinking it might sanctify mine.

You never asked

why I whispered instead of spoke,

but if you had...

I would've told you

my mouth was full of all the words

you used to love me

then left me behind.

So I spit poetry.

I write in business.

I dispatch my ache

in ink and lace.

And still—

I want you to miss me

in the pauses

between every stanza

I didn't sign your name to.

— xoxo, S.🌹