The Heart’s Collapse

Not in the lines etched deep on a face,
Nor the scars that time cannot erase.
Not in the stumble, the public fall,
But in the silence that echoes it all.

The ugliness lies in what’s left unsaid,
In the love withheld, the hope left for dead.
It’s not the fault we wear as a stain,
But the fear that keeps us locked in pain.

It’s the mask we wear to hide the ache,
The brittle smiles we forcefully make.
It’s the quiet wish for another’s despair,
The weight of guilt too heavy to bear.

But even in shadows where truth may cower,
There waits the seed of the soul’s great power.
To face the mirror, to own the strife,
Is to plant the roots of a brighter life.

For beauty is born in the rawest of places,
Amid the wreckage of broken spaces.
It’s in the courage to shed the disguise,
To rise from the wreck and meet your own eyes.

So walk through the halls of your darkest fear,
Name the demons that linger near.
In facing the ugly, we find what’s true,
The beauty within that begins with you.