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...
So do I,
Feel the fire clawing beneath my ribs,
A wildfire that devours reason,
And leaves only ash and echo in its wake.
Anger rises like tidewater, relentless,
Pulling me into currents I cannot name,
Chilling and scorching at once.
So do I,
Hear the silent screams
That no lips dare utter,
The betrayal of trust dripping into my veins,
A poison mingled with the blood of memory.
My heart pulses, a frantic drum,
Beating against a cage of brittle bones,
Each rhythm a rebellion,
Each thump a confession
I cannot make it to anyone but myself.
So do I,
Tremble in the mirror of my own despair,
Where reflections twist and fracture,
Where shadows wear my face
And mock the light I once knew.
I reach for solace,
But it slips through my fingers like smoke,
And I grasp only fragments of myself,
Sharp as shattered glass.
So do I,
Feel my soul rent into two rivers,
One of flame, one of ice,
Both cutting, both drowning me,
Both calling my name in whispers
That promise salvation
Yet offer only torment.
I drink from them both,
And the taste is ruined,
Yet I cannot stop.
So do I,
Lie awake at the hour when the world sleeps,
Counting every wound I have ignored,
Every word I should have spoken,
Every love I let crumble into dust.
My chest is a cavern of echoes,
Filled with sighs that never reach the stars,
Filled with footsteps of ghosts I cannot outrun.
So do I,
Burn with a fury
That is neither righteous nor tame,
That devours my tenderness
Before it can touch another.
I walk through this fire barefoot,
And my soles are scorched,
But still I press forward,
As if motion alone might stave off the darkness
That claws at the edges of my mind.
So do I,
Feel heartbreak not as a wound
But as a landscape,
Endless, barren, and scarred,
Where memories bloom like poisoned flowers,
And every scent carries the sting of loss.
I wander there daily,
Collecting fragments of laughter and pain,
Stitching them together into a tapestry of torment,
Because even suffering has its form,
And form can be endured.
So do I,
Taste the bitterness of what cannot be undone,
The weight of unspoken apologies,
The residue of every choice I regret.
It clings to my tongue,
Sharp and metallic,
And yet I swallow it,
Because I am bound to myself,
And there is no one else to save me.
So do I,
Walk the corridors of my mind
Where anger sleeps and wakes at will,
Where shadows speak in riddles,
And mirrors reflect futures
That may never come.
Each step echoes with uncertainty,
Each breath carries the tremor of fear,
Each heartbeat drums a warning
That I am both hunter and prey.
So do I,
Know the torment of my own cleverness,
The cruelty of insight that sees everything
Yet cannot fix a single thing.
I have learned the price of awareness:
It is a solitude without end,
A cage built from truths too sharp to touch,
And yet, I walk it willingly,
Because ignorance is a luxury I cannot afford.
So do I,
Feel, ache, rage, and bleed
Within the same trembling body.
My soul is a battlefield
Where hope fights despair,
Where love struggles against fear,
Where silence threatens to swallow me whole.
I am every wound I have hidden,
Every fire I have started,
Every scream that never left my lips.
So do I,
Endure the endless turmoil,
The storm that will not pass,
The night that refuses to surrender to dawn.
And yet, in the deepest black,
A small pulse remains,
A flicker of defiance,
A stubborn ember
That refuses to die.
So do I,
Remember that even in torment,
Even in rage,
Even in heartbreak,
I am still here.
I am still breathing.
I am still alive.
And in that simple truth,
I find the smallest, strangest grace:
That a soul, even ravaged,
Can bear witness to itself
And survive.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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