Calling it solace

Calling it solace

in the emptiness

I've come here to pause

in borrowed silence

when the light won't show

I notice

the steady absence of

response

Sometimes I forget

what makes me mine

the air on my skin

familiar filters

light pressing through the dark

And where does it start?

The part that lets people in

I tell myself I’ve won

over, and over

again

Fingers trace the edges of a thought

the silence starts to split

shards of what I couldn’t name

pass through my chest

Naming it solace

in the hollows of the room

a breath, sharp and jagged

I stay—barely

and the dark keeps its promises