With every step, invisible guards watch like shadows

With every step, invisible guards watch like shadows, Not with weapons, not with chains, but with sharp gazes and tongues, With silences too loud to name, And we, we call this freedom, an illusion woven from threads of fear. Go where you will, who stops you now on your path? No locked doors, no fences rise before you, But ask for nothing, not even a drop when thirst burns you, Not a hand when you slowly drown in plain sight. Even hunger must be political here, Listen to the cries, carry them like old ghosts and forget, Forget their names, forget their faces, forget yourself, In this labyrinth without exit, without hope of release. You're clever, aren't you? Why wear pain where it can be seen? Wear silence like an inheritance, a ring stained by time, Passed down by women who stitched their tongues into veils, Speak what you like, but know which words are allowed to live. Bend them, bleed them, call the darkness dawn, Fear peace, call your wounds shining jewels, And if your voice rises, know this: no one listens, Not truly, it's a world of deaf kings and blind gods. They trade silence for survival, wear what you wish, Dress in vivid colors, but don't ask why their eyes Strip your bones in daylight, wear a scarf, Not as pride, but as armor, if you can scream, do it. And if not, bleed silently, silk scarves, Golden nooses, soft as a lullaby of the night, Marry whom you wish, they will let you, won't they? But do not return, your father's house forgets departed daughters. Build a world on foreign soil, bend your back, Lower your voice, forget the sound of your own being, Learn to shrink without a sound, leave as a bride, In crimson veils, return as smoke, lost in memory. The fire consumes you like a memory never meant to be kept, And still, we call this freedom, but its wounds outlive us, Outlive names, gods, stories never allowed to be told, They bleed into the night, and the night bleeds into us. I reap what you have sown, these thorns I wear as a crown, You sowed them in silence, and I reaped them in fury, A silent fury like an echo in the soul of a world, That cries for freedom but finds only silence.