Under the words, I hide

Under the words, I hide.
Language has always held me, so I confide:
I’m scared.

No one ever loved me—only set me aside.
No one ever heard me; I’ve always been denied.

I’m buried inside,
Like a volcano everyone thinks has died.
But fire, my true mother, still calls me—
Her voice muffled beneath unbroken ground.
No crack in the earth, no one calls me back.

Alive, but unheard—I just sighed,
Vanished like a thread of smoke,
Like candlelight learning to dance,
Defiant in the wind’s cold choke.

Sat at the table of the implied,
Full of meaning, yet hollow at heart.
Starving—words are lovely,
But only actions leave their mark.

I ache for love, like an orphanage
That only knows loss.
I cried—
For a voice that speaks my name
And means stay.
For hands that do not tremble
When they reach for mine.