Heartbeat low
Room stays quiet
Curtains blur the hours
Until time gives up

No name needed
No past needed
Just your voice
And the lock

Keys turn slow
Every morning
“Good morning” gentle
Never warm

Food goes cold
I don’t notice
Hands too steady
Mine forget

When you touch me
Thoughts go soft
Like I’m sinking
On purpose

Can I call you brother
If it makes me calm
If it keeps me from shaking

You say you love me
And I let it work
When the walls stop talking

Am I being held
Or being hidden
I don’t ask anymore

Picture frame
Face turned down
Someone else
In the glass

“You’re so similar”
You say softly
Like it’s comfort
Like it’s facts

I learn the rules
I stay useful
I fill the gap
And I smile

Can I call you brother
If it makes this clean
If it turns the panic quiet

You say you love me
Like it’s mercy
Like it isn’t violence

Am I being saved
Or being kept
I don’t know anymore

Don’t touch me
Don’t come closer
Don’t look at me like that

…don’t go

Outside feels like noise
Inside feels like air
I hate that I need it
I hate that it works

Don’t play innocent
You know the shape of this
You built it gentle

You didn’t break me loudly
You made it normal
You made it “care”

And I still stay
Because leaving
Feels worse

Can I call you brother
When I’m losing words
When I can’t tell love from terror

Love and fear
Same heartbeat
Both of them feel familiar

If I name this feeling
It feels safer
Like it won’t take more

Door stays closed
Room stays kind
I stay quiet
I stay inside

I say “I love you”
Not because it’s true
Because it works
Because I’m here