The room is too quiet Even the floorboards forgot how to creak We stopped cooking weeks ago But the smell of empty pots still lingers My brother lies where the sunlight used to fall Skin pale like paper held too long in rain He asks if there’ll be food tomorrow His voice is soft—soft like something fading I touch his forehead with shaking fingers Wishing warmth into him Pretending I don’t feel the bones beneath Pretending I don’t hear him swallow nothing again Mother counts our remaining days in whispers Not with anger—just exhausted truth She says hope used to be a strong word here Now it feels too heavy to lift Mouths full of silence Rooms full of prayers that never learned to speak We’re holding on by threads thinner than breath Waiting for help that never leaves their streets Mouths full of silence Eyes too tired to cry anymore We sleep to forget the hunger Then wake to remember what we’re dying for My brother asks me stories of better days I lie because truth feels crueler than hunger I tell him one day we’ll laugh at all this Though even the walls know it isn’t true Mother’s hands shake when she stands Her shadow smaller each morning She hides her weakness behind a crooked smile Saving her share for us Even when her own body begs her not to The water jug is empty again But we tilt it anyway—just in case Sometimes hope sounds like drops that never fall Sometimes it sounds like nothing at all Mouths full of silence Breaths uneven as a collapsing roof We ration our words to save our strength As if silence alone could keep us proof Mouths full of silence Where lullabies once lived in our bones Now only the hum of a dying house And the hunger that calls us by name He stopped asking about food today He just stared at the ceiling Like he was trying to remember the shape of clouds Or the taste of yesterday And I… I don’t know what to tell him anymore Mouths full of silence Heavier than any storm we’ve ever known We’re still here—but only barely Held together by memories we can’t eat Mouths full of silence But I swear I’ll carry him if he cannot stand Even if the sky stays dry forever Even if the world keeps looking away Even if hope was never meant For hands like ours If tomorrow comes Let it be kinder If it doesn’t Let it at least be quick
