Love was never a heartbeat. It was the echo left behind after the heart forgot why it was still beating. It arrived wearing another person's face, its hands stitched together from promises that had already begun to rot. I welcomed it. Not because it was kind, but because loneliness knows how to mistake a wolf for warmth. Every smile it offered cast a longer shadow. Every whispered "forever" fed another ghost sleeping beneath my ribs. The thought of love is a clever liar. It builds cathedrals from broken mirrors, then asks us to kneel before our own reflections, calling the illusion destiny. How eagerly we obey. We water flowers that grow from graves, write poems to people who never truly existed, and embrace memories still unborn. Love watches. Silent. Patient. Like a spider waiting in the center of a web woven from hope. It never forces us inside. It simply lets us believe the silver threads are rays of morning light. By the time we understand, the sky has forgotten our ...
My heart has been bleeding for so long
it has learned how to hide the stain.
It dresses itself in ordinary smiles,
laughs when laughter is expected,
nods at conversations,
and walks through crowded streets
as if nothing inside is falling apart.
No one notices.
How could they?
The wound is hidden beneath practiced replies,
beneath "I'm okay,"
beneath the mask I wear so often
it sometimes feels more real than my face.
Inside, there are storms.
Quiet storms.
The kind that do not shatter windows
but slowly shake the foundations.
The kind that keep a person awake at night,
replaying old hurts,
counting regrets,
and wondering how someone can feel so lonely
while surrounded by people.
Fear sits beside me like a shadow.
Fear of being judged.
Fear of being misunderstood.
Fear of becoming a burden.
Fear of speaking the truth
and watching people look away.
So I remain silent.
A prisoner whose chains are invisible.
The world sees a functioning person.
A capable person.
A smiling person.
But it does not see the battlefields
hidden beneath my skin.
It does not hear the exhausted heart
begging for a moment of peace.
Yet somewhere inside the bleeding,
inside the fear,
inside the darkness that refuses to leave,
a small part of me still survives.
A quiet voice that whispers,
"Hold on."
Not because the pain is gone.
But because even wounded hearts
still carry hope.
And perhaps one day,
the heart nobody sees
will no longer need to hide.
It will step into the light,
scarred but breathing,
broken but healing,
afraid but finally free.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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