The Things I Never Said

There are words

I kept tucked

behind my teeth—

not because they weren’t true,

but because I was scared

they’d change something

I wasn’t ready to lose.

I learned to smile instead,

learned to swallow

whole storms

just to keep the peace

around me.

But silence has weight,

and mine grew heavy—

a quiet ache

I carried everywhere,

like a note

I never got to send.

One day,

I’ll let those words go—

not to rewrite the past,

not to fix what’s gone,

but to free myself

from everything

I kept hidden.

Sometimes the things

we never say

shape us the most—

not because they stayed inside,

but because

we finally learned

to let them out.