The hallway smells like old paint and warm dust
My footsteps slow on borrowed carpet
But the door's somewhere closed without anger
Just a soft click of a decision
I set my back down beside the wall
Feel the quiet climb my shoulder
For once,
nothing in me is bracing For what might follow after this
I used to keep my pulse on a short leap
Just in case it embarrassed me
I don't think I'm tame I think I finally stopped fighting the shape
I let my breath take up its own space in the room
Without shrinking the sound I make
It isn't softer
It's steady in a way I don't have to explain Anymore
A streetlight flickers through the stairwell
window Turns the dust into slow constellations
Someone hums within concrete floors A song with no destination
I used to edit the edge out of every
feeling Round every sentence I said
Tonight I leave the corners where they
land And watch how calm that feels instead
What's the difference between being careful
And being trained not to move?
I don't think I'm tame I think I learned how to stay with the heat
How to listen to the quiet Underneath
my fear without calling it defeated
It's in control It's just in the part
of me that still knows where to lean
I thought strength meant keeping my
wild small Folded into something polite
But my body loosens when I stop asking For permission to feel alive
I think I
finally trust my pace I walk with my whole weight inside my step now
I let it change my face It isn't louder It's
honest in a way that doesn't flinch when I stay
I take the long way down
Let the light switch as it's taken And keep what
moves in me
Untouched,
untouched