Panic Has My Face

There’s a monster in my mirror

Whispers crawling through my chest

Telling me I’m not a fighter,

Just a guest in my own flesh.

Panic is a quiet scream

That never seems to fade,

It wraps around my ribcage

Like a promise never made.

They ask me why I flinch at light,

Why joy feels like a lie.

But they don’t see the way I drown

In silence, gasping dry.

My heartbeat is a ticking bomb

For no one else to hear,

I smile like it’s armor,

But I breathe through brittle fear.

I keep my hands from shaking

By clenching them too tight,

And laugh like I’m not breaking

Just to make it through the night.

They say, "It’s just in your head",

As if that sets me free,

But hell built in the mind

Still burns like any sea.

So here I am, pretending

That I’m not coming apart,

Wearing calm like cologne

Over a collapsing heart.