Mercy came knocking once, a pale wanderer draped in dawn, with weary eyes and gentle hands, carrying no sword, only the burden of understanding. But the wicked knew not her face. Their hearts were citadels of stone, where compassion died unnamed and every wound became a weapon. They barred the gates. For mercy is a stranger in the hearts of the wicked. She walks their halls unseen, a ghost among shadows, whispering of forgiveness to ears that worship vengeance. They drink from poisoned wells and call bitterness wisdom. They sharpen grief into blades and wear cruelty like a crown. Where mercy offers a bridge, they build a wall. Where mercy kneels, they strike. And so she leaves quietly, taking her light with her, while darkness settles deeper into chambers already cold. The wicked do not fear mercy, they fear what mercy reveals: that beneath their iron masks, beneath their kingdoms of pride, beneath the ruins they call strength, there lives a trembling truth they dare not face. For merc...
She wears a ring that glimmers faintly,
not with affection, nor with grace,
but like a chain that learned to shine
while binding someone into place.
It rests upon her fragile hand,
a symbol praised by watching eyes,
Yet none can hear the silent truth
that trembles where her spirit lies.
Not seen as wife, nor held as one,
no equal voice, no gentle claim,
just hands that serve from dawn to dusk
and shoulders bowed beneath his name.
She wakes before the morning breath,
before the sky begins to glow,
to sweep the dust of someone’s pride
and clean a life she does not own.
The floors reflect her quiet steps,
The walls absorb her muted sighs,
each room a witness to her worth
reduced to chores and alibis.
He calls her not with love or care,
but with a tone that cuts and bends,
a summons sharp, a command plain,
no warmth that lingers, no amends.
Her voice is wrapped in careful thread,
each word measured, soft, and small,
Even sound can break the peace
that keeps her standing, keeps her whole.
She moves like someone passing through
a place she once had hoped to claim,
but every corner speaks aloud,
This house remembers not her name.
The meals she makes are never praised,
The effort fades before it lands,
Her presence is only noticed when
There is a task within his hands.
She folds his shirts with quiet care,
as though each crease might earn her sight,
but still remains a distant thought
that disappears before the night.
No laughter shared across the day,
no stories told, no gentle glance,
just empty space between two lives
that never learned the art of chance.
He looks at her as something found,
as though she rose from nothingness,
as if her past held no bright light,
as if her worth were second best.
As if he reached into the dark
and pulled her from a lesser ground,
and now she owes her every breath
to him, to silence, to the sound.
She feels it in the way he stands,
in how he speaks, in how he sees,
a distance carved by quiet pride
that never bends, that never frees.
Her dreams once danced like open skies,
unbound, alive with endless air,
but now they whisper from within,
afraid to rise, too worn to dare.
She eats in silence, slow and still,
as though each bite must be concealed,
For hunger is the only truth
that she is certain can be healed.
The mirror holds a distant face,
a version time has learned to hide,
a woman shaped by unseen weight
and quiet storms she keeps inside.
Yet somewhere deep beneath the ache,
beneath the dust of daily strain,
There lives a voice that will not fade,
a spark untouched by all the pain.
It tells her she was never made
to live beneath another’s hand,
to shrink her soul to fit a role
that strips away what she once planned.
It whispers through the longest nights,
through every tear she will not show,
reminding her of who she was
before she learned to bend so low.
The ring may circle flesh and bone,
but cannot cage the soul within,
for even chains that seem complete
can break when truth begins to spin.
She is not what his silence says,
nor what his distant gaze has framed,
She is a world he never knew,
a fire that can never be tamed.
And though she walks through shadowed halls
where love was never asked to stay,
There waits a dawn beyond his walls
where she will choose another way.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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