I learned early how to stay quiet How to take up almost no space I stood inside the rooms I lived in But no one learned my face I saw the world from where I waited Saw it happen without me I was there my whole damn childhood But never what they chose to see I reached for hands that never moved Called out soft, then learned to stop Every door I stood in front of Stayed a wall I couldn’t knock I stood right in front of you And still faded where I stood I was breathing, I was breaking I did all that I could I gave everything I had Just to matter to you So tell me now, inside this silence Why was I never seen I learned to shrink my expectations Learned to need a little less I learned how not to ask for comfort How to wear the emptiness Home was just a place I waited Not a place I felt safe in I watched others being held While I learned to hold my shit in I wasn’t asking for forever Just a sign I mattered then But love was always somewhere else In someone else’s hands I stood right in front of you And still faded where I stood I was breathing, I was breaking I did all that I could I gave everything I had Just to matter to you So tell me now, inside this silence Why was I never seen I stopped waiting for an answer Stopped hoping I was wrong I learned how to go unnoticed In the place I came from I stood right in front of you With my hands over my ears I was screaming in the quiet I was disappearing here I was there my whole damn life In the room where I should’ve been I’m asking once without forgiveness Why Why I was never seen
