Silent Screams

• Silent Screams

by (mukhlis)

There’s a room inside me.

A room no one else can see.

It’s locked tight,

Dark as the deepest night,

Silent as the void between stars.

No door leads inside,

No window lets in light.

Only a wall,

And behind it, my screams are trapped —

Silent, unheard, unseen.

Every day, I step outside that room.

I put on a mask,

A smile curved just right,

And walk among people.

I talk, laugh, nod —

Like everything is fine.

But inside that hidden room,

A storm rages on.

My silent screams echo off the walls,

Bouncing, twisting, searching for escape.

They claw at my throat,

Begging to be heard.

Sometimes, they almost break free.

My breath catches.

My hands tremble.

But I swallow them back down,

Because the world isn’t ready for my pain.

They say to me,

“You’re so strong.”

“You handle everything with grace.”

“You never let anything show.”

And I nod silently,

Because explaining is too exhausting.

Because no one wants to hear the real story.

At night, when the world falls asleep,

I return to that room.

I unlock the door —

But no one follows.

I sit with my silent screams,

Their voices loud only to me.

They don’t speak words.

They only stare,

Reminding me of every moment I broke,

Every time I stitched myself back together

Without anyone noticing.

Sometimes, I touch the walls,

And the cracks beneath my fingertips bleed memories.

Memories I hide in daylight,

Locked away in this silent prison.

The weight of it all is heavy.

The loneliness suffocates.

But still, I keep going.

Smiling, pretending, surviving.

One day, I wonder…

Will the walls hold?

Will the silence last?

Or will the screams shatter my soul?

Will I finally scream out loud?

I’m afraid.

Afraid of breaking.

Afraid of being weak.

Afraid of losing control.

But more than fear,

There’s a quiet hope.

A hope that one day,

Someone will hear the screams,

Even without words.

Someone will see the cracks

And offer a hand.

Someone will stay,

Not just for the smiles,

But for the silent screams too.

Until then,

I’ll keep my secret room locked.

Hold my silent screams close.

And walk through the world

With a smile that hides the storm.