I remain

I wake up in a house that doesn't breathe

Still hear your voice in the floorboards beneath

The mirror holds a stranger’s face

Wearing grief I can’t erase

The world keeps turning like it’s fine

While I unravel, lost in time

They say the pain will start to fade

But it still visits me every day

There’s ashes in the silence

Echoes in my chest

Wounds that never fully close

Just learn to rest

I carry what I cannot speak

A weight that makes my spirit weak

But I survive with every breath I take

Even when I break

I smile in photos out of place

While haunted eyes still search for grace

I fake the calm, I hide the storm

But trauma has a quiet form

The world wants answers I can’t give

They don’t know how hard it is to live

When every memory cuts like glass

And every heartbeat grieves the past

There’s ashes in the silence

And stories left untold

I wear my hurt beneath my skin

So no one knows

I’m stitched together, scar by scar

Trying to find out who we are

After the fall, after the quake

Even when I break

It’s not weakness, it’s surviving

It’s not healing, it’s just trying

Some days I drown, some days I float

But I’m still here — that means hope

There’s ashes in the silence

But I still make a sound

Even when my voice is low

I stand my ground

Grief may never let me go

But I have roots that still can grow

So I will rise, for my own sake

Even when I break

Even when I break…

I still remain