They told me quiet was safer But silence felt like dying slow So I wrote my truth in the dark Hoping daylight wouldn’t burn it The walls have ears—everyone knows that The cracks whisper louder than the people I hide my notebook under loose floorboards Where even the dust feels watched Every word I write is a small rebellion Paper trembling like it fears punishment The ink dries slow in this cold room As if it’s afraid to be seen I hear footsteps outside every night Boots that speak the language of power They don’t knock—they invade And they don’t ask, they erase These are the words they tried to bury But my voice digs through the earth They can burn every page I’ve written But they can’t cauterize my worth These are the words they tried to bury Under fear, under law, under threat But silence cracks when pressed too hard And I’m done pretending I forget They took my friend for speaking too loudly Dragged her into a van with no windows Her house still smells like her perfume But the air feels wrong—too empty to breathe I keep her last letter folded in my pocket Edges worn soft from trembling hands It says “If they silence me, keep singing” But singing feels like a loaded weapon now Every radio station speaks the same lie Every channel loops the same smile Every crowd glances over its shoulder As if freedom were a contagious crime These are the words they tried to bury Locked behind iron and men with guns But truth is a stubborn, starving animal It bites back when cornered long enough These are the words they tried to bury Deep beneath the noise they broadcast But we are louder in the trembling dark Than their towers rising from our past I’m not afraid of losing breath I’m afraid of losing meaning Afraid of dying unheard Afraid of living muted So if they come for me tonight Let them hear the sound they fear most— A woman refusing to shut her mouth In a world built on silence These are the words they tried to bury But I carved them into my bones Break me—I'll bleed sentences Burn me—my ashes will still speak These are the words they tried to bury But the ground keeps spitting them back out You can’t silence a throat that refuses to close You can’t bury a truth that refuses to drown If my voice disappears tomorrow Remember— The quiet wasn’t my choice It was their fear Of what I could say
