The Weight of Words

They told her, "Words are just air". But air can bruise, and silence can tear. She learned to bleed in quiet tones, Each syllable a crack in bones. They carved her name in crooked lies, They laughed when truth leaked from her eyes. Words were chains that held her tight, sweet on tongues, but edged with bite. They dressed their hate in honeyed rhyme, And jailed her voice in scripted time. But one day, she picked the pen. and wrote not for "them"— Each verse she wrote broke through the bars, A language made of wounds and stars. Now every word she dares to speak, Is thunder rolling through the weak. ~hira~