Silence Who You Are

He speaks before I do. CUT He judges before I create— or just after… And that’s somehow worse. He bears my mother’s likeness, but he isn’t her. CUT He is only what remained in me, and it isn’t flattering. [CHORUS — wider sound, strings rising] We bend, we carve ourselves smaller, we fold inward, to fit the boxes, to wear the labels, to stay “family‑acceptable.” [VERSE 2 — piano enters, deeper resonance] Before words, there were her eyes. CUT And I learned to stay quiet, obedient, at the slightest sign that her patience was thinning. Before I even had words, I already had fears, wounds rooted deep, the kind she never wished to know. CUT I had to be a perfect child for a perfect mother. And I was. [CHORUS — fuller, soulful harmonics] We bend, we carve ourselves smaller, we fold inward, to fit the boxes, CUT to stay “family‑acceptable.” [VERSE 3 — atmospheric pads, slow build] At ages too young to understand, what else can a child do but bend to the will of those meant to love them? Survival is the first priority. The second is believing you’re loved. Are we truly? Nothing is less certain. We feel everything, we know what happens, the family horrors and the secrets, the pain even they no longer feel, but nothing must be shown, nothing must be spoken. To be accepted, you must silence who you are, what you know, and above all what you suffer. We bend, we carve ourselves smaller, we fold inward, to fit the boxes, to wear the labels, to stay “family‑acceptable.” So the inner judge is born, the one with no pity, no mercy, the one who plants doubt, who shames, who mocks, who whispers “you have no worth beyond what is demanded of you.” “You’re ridiculous, you’re twisted, you’re cruel, you don’t deserve what you have, you don’t deserve love, you are NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING more than what you’re useful for to those who hold power over you.” And we live in a society built on that.