Outdoor Walls

I used to stay inside because it felt like the safest thing.

Because the air was familiar, even if it was heavy.

Because I had learned to move through the dim rooms like a shadow,

small enough not to disturb anything,

quiet enough not to be questioned.

*

But a house is not a home just because it has walls.

And walls do not make you safe just because they keep you in.

*

So I leave.

Not in a grand, dramatic way,

but in the way that matters—

in the way that feels like stretching a limb that has been asleep too long.

I sit on empty benches and let the world move around me,

I stand in crowds and feel the space I take up,

I walk through doors and do not look back.

*

Because there are a billion walls in this world,

and at least one of them was built with a place for me inside.

And I will find it.

*

Even if I have to leave everything I once called home to do it.