There is a place inside you No map has ever traced, a quiet room behind the ribs where light forgets to stay. No one sees it when you smile, No one hears it when you speak. It moves beneath your laughter like a river running deep. It is yours alone to carry, not carved for other hands, a language made of silence Only your soul understands. Some mornings it is heavier, a stone you cannot name, And still you rise and wear your life as if it were the same. But pain, it does not leave you when ignored or pushed away, it waits within the folds of time, it learns you day by day. It is not your enemy, though it cuts without a sound; it is the truth you buried but still lives underground. And yes, there are nights it breaks you, when endurance feels too wide, when even breath feels borrowed And there is nowhere left to hide. Yet somehow you continue, not because you do not fall, but because within the breaking You still answer life’s call. You learn to walk beside it, not beneath it, not above...
What am I?
A simple person with a smile,
not one that appears on command,
but one that rises
only when it means something.
I have felt the weight of words
that were never true
slander that cut without proof,
betrayal that came unannounced,
criticism and hatred
placed on me without a single sin.
They say I do not laugh.
That is not the truth.
I think carefully.
I listen deeply.
I choose my laughter
only where it is safe
to let it live.
Life has shown me fire
I have burned
without season or warning.
Pain arrived early
and stayed longer than invited.
So tell me;
Where would my smile come from
after such a life?
It waits quietly,
not broken,
Just cautious.
Resting until the world
proves it can be kind enough
to deserve it.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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