Quiet Collapse

People call sadness crying out loud,

Shattered hearts in a screaming crowd.

But they don’t speak of the silent kind,

The ache that settles deep in the mind.

The kind I carry, heavy as stone,

Feeling broken even when I’m not alone.

I give my heart till there’s nothing left,

And every love feels like another theft.

Again and again, pain calls my name,

Different faces, but it feels the same.

If I love too much, I’m far too deep,

If I pull away, I’m cold I keep.

Too much, too little, never enough,

Being human always feels too rough.

And every joy I try to hold

Slips through my hands and turns to cold.

No one hears a person break

When the breaking makes no sound.

I smile while my soul aches,

But no one sees me falling down.

I wear happiness like borrowed clothes,

Hide the hurt that no one knows.

And in the dark where silence wraps—

I live inside a quiet collapse.

People say I should be grateful still,

Like blessings somehow make pain unreal.

Good life, good future, people who care,

But emptiness can breathe anywhere.

I laugh on cue, I play the part,

Paint bright colors over a tired heart.

Say “I’m fine,” say “I’m just worn,”

Smile through evenings, survive till morn.

Sometimes I know what’s wrong inside,

Sometimes it’s a shadow I cannot define.

But truth sits bruised beneath my skin—

I am not okay, though I pretend.

So I get smaller, fade away,

Push love aside before it stays.

Maybe chosen loneliness hurts less

Than waiting for another emptiness.

No one hears a person break

When the breaking makes no sound.

I smile while my soul aches,

But no one sees me falling down.

I wear happiness like borrowed clothes,

Hide the hurt that no one knows.

And in the dark where silence wraps—

I live inside a quiet collapse.

Emptiness follows where I go,

Crowded rooms still feel so cold.

Sits beside me while people laugh,

Whispers when the night goes black.

Am I stitched from smiles and scars?

Splintered underneath the stars.

Being loved but feeling unseen,

Alive but absent in between.

Maybe someday this void will bloom,

Let in light inside this room.

Maybe breathing won’t feel like war,

Maybe I’ll be whole once more.

But tonight no one hears me break,

Because the breaking makes no sound.

I’m smiling while my soul aches,

While silence pulls me underground.

Still I wear these borrowed clothes,

Carry hurt nobody knows.

And maybe the cruelest truth perhaps—

Is dying slowly in a quiet collapse.People call sadness loud…

But mine breaks in silence.

And no one hears

A quiet collapse.