Mouths Full of Silence

The room is too quiet

Even the floorboards forgot how to creak

We stopped cooking weeks ago

But the smell of empty pots still lingers

My brother lies where the sunlight used to fall

Skin pale like paper held too long in rain

He asks if there’ll be food tomorrow

His voice is soft—soft like something fading

I touch his forehead with shaking fingers

Wishing warmth into him

Pretending I don’t feel the bones beneath

Pretending I don’t hear him swallow nothing again

Mother counts our remaining days in whispers

Not with anger—just exhausted truth

She says hope used to be a strong word here

Now it feels too heavy to lift

Mouths full of silence

Rooms full of prayers that never learned to speak

We’re holding on by threads thinner than breath

Waiting for help that never leaves their streets

Mouths full of silence

Eyes too tired to cry anymore

We sleep to forget the hunger

Then wake to remember what we’re dying for

My brother asks me stories of better days

I lie because truth feels crueler than hunger

I tell him one day we’ll laugh at all this

Though even the walls know it isn’t true

Mother’s hands shake when she stands

Her shadow smaller each morning

She hides her weakness behind a crooked smile

Saving her share for us

Even when her own body begs her not to

The water jug is empty again

But we tilt it anyway—just in case

Sometimes hope sounds like drops that never fall

Sometimes it sounds like nothing at all

Mouths full of silence

Breaths uneven as a collapsing roof

We ration our words to save our strength

As if silence alone could keep us proof

Mouths full of silence

Where lullabies once lived in our bones

Now only the hum of a dying house

And the hunger that calls us by name

He stopped asking about food today

He just stared at the ceiling

Like he was trying to remember the shape of clouds

Or the taste of yesterday

And I…

I don’t know what to tell him anymore

Mouths full of silence

Heavier than any storm we’ve ever known

We’re still here—but only barely

Held together by memories we can’t eat

Mouths full of silence

But I swear I’ll carry him if he cannot stand

Even if the sky stays dry forever

Even if the world keeps looking away

Even if hope was never meant

For hands like ours

If tomorrow comes

Let it be kinder

If it doesn’t

Let it at least be quick