Afraid to speak, I bite my tongue until it bleeds, Never feeling like I'm allowed to express my needs Smother my feelings beneath a veil of pretense Wishing I wasn’t a victim of circumstance Always the perfect example of composure Like the weight of the world sits on my shoulders I make it look easy as I choke down my pain My bests never good enough, my efforts in vain Mental degradation that erodes my soul That leaves behind a husk of the hollowed whole Smothered beneath broken promises and lies A beating heart snuffed out by unfair compromise Its suffocating, self-deprivation Such desperation, Its suffocating So suffocating, feeling forsaken This degradation, is so suffocating They make me feel invisible My existence can be miserable Fighting to break free Screaming on my knees Do they have to see me bleed Before they give me what I need Beating my head against the wall Begging, pleading, see me crawl Pounding my fists raw But nothing matters anymore Its suffocating, self-deprivation Such desperation, Its suffocating So suffocating, feeling forsaken This degradation - is so suffocating The corrosive burden that clings and decays to who I once was back in brighter days My spirit now broken, by soul-crushing weight Wondering how I was left this wretched fate There’s no salvation in the wreckage they created, only the slow, inevitable pull of something suffocating. [copyright © 2026 Kiki Kutie — unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited]
