Wake up*

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

This is a nightmare they call reality.

People walk blindfolded, smiling, pretending.

Talking about wars, politics, headlines—

But they can’t see the wreckage in their own rooms.

Scrolling, sipping, laughing—

While everything fragile burns beneath their feet.

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

Remember being a kid?

Yelling at Mom, *“I just want to be free!”*

No rules, no chains—just fire in your hands.

She laughed, said, *“You’ll see.”*

I see now, Mom.

I see too damn clearly.

The world didn’t care.

Adults didn’t care.

And I’m still screaming into a void that won’t answer.

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

I never feared dying as a kid.

Now, the thought lingers like smoke in my chest.

Sometimes it whispers, *“Just let go.”*

Life was simple then.

Kids were cruel, toys stolen,

Mom crying somewhere in the other room.

*“What’s wrong, Mom? Did Santa betray you too?

Did you get coal like everyone else?”*

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

I don’t know the point of any of this.

I don’t know what I want.

I don’t even know if I’m good for anything.

Losing my job didn’t break me—it exposed me.

Exposed the hollow inside my chest.

So… what now?

What am I gonna do?

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

The faces in the crowd stare like empty masks,

Hiding behind screens, behind walls, behind smiles.

They talk, they plan, they dream—

But no one sees the fire under their own skin.

I reach out—hands trembling—

No one grabs hold.

No one even notices.

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

The night comes, and I wander through streets

Where shadows are taller than buildings,

And sirens wail like ghosts.

Every hurt, every loss, every small death unnamed, unnoticed—

I carry them all in my chest like stones.

I want to scream,

I want to vanish,

I want someone to say, *“I see you. I hear you.”*

But silence answers.

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

I burn my fears, bite back my pain,

Carry the hollow as armor.

Sometimes I dream of escape:

Running into fog so thick it swallows me whole,

Or into a crowd that finally understands the fire.

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

Everywhere I look, the world is fractured.

People pretending, hiding, smiling while they bleed inside.

I scream at the skyscrapers, the neon, the screens,

At every siren, every echo, every shadow:

Wake up.

See the fire.

See the truth before it burns us all.

*Wake up… wake up… wake up…*

The memory of being a kid haunts me.

The simplicity, the rawness, the small victories and losses—

The moments of love, pain, fear, and wonder.

And I carry them like a ghost chain,

Pulling me, pushing me,

Shaping me, breaking me,

Reminding me of what I am,

And what the world has always been.

Wake up… wake up… wake up…

Maybe tomorrow—maybe—

The hollow will be lighter, the world a little less blind.

But until then, I stand in the ruins,

Screaming into silence,

Watching the fire,

And whispering to the ghosts:

Wake up… wake up… wake up…

Wake up… wake up… wake up…

Wake up… wake up… wake up…