Echoes
They laughed as if it weighed no more
Than dust upon the classroom floor.
A whispered joke, a pointed stare,
Pretending no one noticed there.
The words were small, or so they said,
Yet lived like storms inside my head.
Each passing day they gathered weight,
A quiet burden built by hate.
They stole my voice one joke at a time,
Turning confidence into a crime.
Every answer stayed behind my teeth,
Buried somewhere far beneath.
The halls grew longer every day,
As if the walls had learned their way.
Every locker, every bell,
Became another kind of hell.
Some watched with eyes turned to the ground,
As if their silence made no sound.
No hands reached out, no voices rose;
The loudest pain is one no one knows.
They said, "It's only words," and smiled,
As though the hurt was weak and mild.
But words can settle deep inside,
Where fear and loneliness collide.
The mirrors learned to speak their names,
Reflecting all their borrowed claims.
I searched for someone I once knew,
But every glance revealed someone new.
Even laughter started to sting,
A simple joke meant everything.
I questioned every passing glance,
Every whisper, every chance.
The days moved on; the years did too.
The world forgot, but memories grew.
Time never asked what I had lost,
Or counted up the hidden cost.
They walked away when school was through,
Never wondering what they put me through.
Perhaps they never even knew
How deeply every sentence grew.
The bruises faded, none could see,
The ones they carved inside of me.
No scars to trace, no blood to find,
Only echoes living in my mind.
The classroom emptied. Chairs were still.
The silence settled with its chill.
Their voices left the room behind,
But never truly left my mind.
Some wounds are hidden, dark and deep,
The kind that follow into sleep.
And though the world moved on with ease,
The echoes never asked to leave.
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