They told you
soft is safer—
that silence is a kind of shelter,
that shrinking makes you easier to hold.
So you folded.
Tucked thunder behind your teeth,
hid whole galaxies in your chest,
called it “being good.”
But your voice—
it never agreed to disappear.
It waited
in the hum beneath your ribs,
in the ache of unsaid things,
in every moment you almost spoke
and didn’t.
Listen—
it’s still there.
Not broken,
not gone,
just patient.
It sounds like breath
before a storm,
like a match struck in the dark,
like your own name
finally said
the way it was meant to be.
Take it back.
Let it come out uneven,
let it shake,
let it burn the careful script
they handed you.
You are allowed
to be loud with truth,
to take up space with your living,
to turn whispers into something
that echoes.
This is how you begin again—
not by asking permission,
but by answering yourself.
Speak.
Even if your voice trembles,
even if it cracks open the sky—
especially then.
Because it was always yours.
Thank-you for reading.
Brenda Marie
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Very nice thoughtful poetry, Brenda!
Thank-you so much Tim.
My pleasure, Brenda. 😍
This is breathtaking, Brenda. I love how you turn “soft” and “silent” inside out—not as virtues, but as survival strategies that eventually choke. “Tucked thunder behind your teeth / hid whole galaxies in your chest” is just stunning imagery. A quiet, powerful redemption. You didn’t let the poem end on loss; you ended on presence. “Not broken, not gone, just patient” gave me chills. Thank you for writing this.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful reading—it really means a lot to me. I’m especially glad those lines resonated with you, because they came from a place that felt difficult to name at first. The idea of “soft” and “silent” as survival strategies is something I’ve been sitting with for a while, so hearing that it came through clearly is incredibly affirming.
I love how you described the ending as presence—that’s exactly what I was hoping to reach for. Not a neat resolution, but something steadier and more honest. Your response captured that so beautifully, and I’m really grateful you took the time to share it.