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 ...
Do not mistake my silence
for surrender.
Do not mistake my calm waters
for a shallow shore.
I have mastered the art
of appearing harmless,
of wearing stillness
like a finely tailored cloak.
The innocent face you see
is merely moonlight
resting upon a dark ocean.
Beautiful.
Quiet.
Deceptive.
Beneath it,
ancient currents move.
I have walked through fires
that would have reduced weaker souls
to ashes and forgotten names.
I have swallowed storms
without allowing thunder
to escape my lips.
The darkness taught me
how to survive.
Pain taught me
how to endure.
Betrayal taught me
how to see.
Now I observe
more than I speak.
I listen
more than I reveal.
For there is power
in being underestimated.
People often mistake kindness
for weakness.
Gentleness
for fragility.
Patience
for fear.
How little they know.
The serpent does not announce
the venom in its fangs.
The abyss does not advertise
its depth.
And the deadliest blade
is often hidden
inside the finest sheath.
I carry shadows
where others carry pride.
I carry restraint
where others carry rage.
Not because I cannot destroy,
but because I choose not to.
Yet if pushed far enough,
if cornered long enough,
the darkness I have chained
within the chambers of my soul
will awaken.
And mercy,
once abundant,
will become a stranger.
So judge me by my calm smile.
Believe I am harmless.
Believe I am innocent.
Many have made
that beautiful mistake.
Until they discovered
that beneath the quiet surface
of a wounded soul
lies something far more dangerous
than anger,
a spirit that has survived hell
and no longer fears it.
© 2026 Gloria Penelope
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