The Words They Tried To Bury

They told me quiet was safer

But silence felt like dying slow

So I wrote my truth in the dark

Hoping daylight wouldn’t burn it

The walls have ears—everyone knows that

The cracks whisper louder than the people

I hide my notebook under loose floorboards

Where even the dust feels watched

Every word I write is a small rebellion

Paper trembling like it fears punishment

The ink dries slow in this cold room

As if it’s afraid to be seen

I hear footsteps outside every night

Boots that speak the language of power

They don’t knock—they invade

And they don’t ask, they erase

These are the words they tried to bury

But my voice digs through the earth

They can burn every page I’ve written

But they can’t cauterize my worth

These are the words they tried to bury

Under fear, under law, under threat

But silence cracks when pressed too hard

And I’m done pretending I forget

They took my friend for speaking too loudly

Dragged her into a van with no windows

Her house still smells like her perfume

But the air feels wrong—too empty to breathe

I keep her last letter folded in my pocket

Edges worn soft from trembling hands

It says “If they silence me, keep singing”

But singing feels like a loaded weapon now

Every radio station speaks the same lie

Every channel loops the same smile

Every crowd glances over its shoulder

As if freedom were a contagious crime

These are the words they tried to bury

Locked behind iron and men with guns

But truth is a stubborn, starving animal

It bites back when cornered long enough

These are the words they tried to bury

Deep beneath the noise they broadcast

But we are louder in the trembling dark

Than their towers rising from our past

I’m not afraid of losing breath

I’m afraid of losing meaning

Afraid of dying unheard

Afraid of living muted

So if they come for me tonight

Let them hear the sound they fear most—

A woman refusing to shut her mouth

In a world built on silence

These are the words they tried to bury

But I carved them into my bones

Break me—I'll bleed sentences

Burn me—my ashes will still speak

These are the words they tried to bury

But the ground keeps spitting them back out

You can’t silence a throat that refuses to close

You can’t bury a truth that refuses to drown

If my voice disappears tomorrow

Remember—

The quiet wasn’t my choice

It was their fear

Of what I could say