Unspoken, Still Carried

This poem is part of Essence & Expression pillar within The Unshackled Voice.
Where we speak what we once swallowed.
Where silence is no longer mistaken for strength.
Where we learn to ask, to stay, and to listen —
before it's too late.

This one came from what I didn’t say —
and what I still carry because of it.

---

I didn’t ask.
Not the real questions.
Not the ones that live behind the eyes,
under the breath,
beneath the rehearsed “I’m fine.”

I heard the word depressed
and said,
“Oh.”
And that was it.
I walked beside him,
but I wasn’t with him.

I didn’t hear what he didn’t say.
Didn’t stay long enough
in the quiet
to feel what he was holding.

I thought we had time.
I thought presence could wait.

But silence can be a slow goodbye
you don’t recognize
until it ends.

I told myself
he knew I loved him.
That love is louder than absence.
But still —
I should’ve asked.

Now, I live
with the weight of everything
I never gave him room to speak.
Not because I didn’t care,
but because I didn’t know
how to stop performing long enough
to truly see him.

So now,
I’m learning to stay.
To listen.
To ask twice.
To pause before I soften the moment with distraction.

Because I don’t want to live
holding the echo
of a truth that was mine to invite.

---

Author’s Note:
The Unshackled Voice isn’t always loud.
Sometimes it’s quiet. Regretful.
Sometimes it’s the voice you didn’t use — and the one you’re reclaiming now.

This poem came from that place.
The ache of not asking.
The silence I thought was safer.
The moment I missed, and the truth I now choose.

---

Thank you for listening.

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Because this is where the work becomes real — when you step inside it.
When you meet yourself at the threshold where truth lives.
Where silence ends and embodiment begins.
Where you begin to reclaim your fullest voice, your deepest presence, your truest self.

May your journey be a gentle one —
rich with truth,
full of grace,
and led by the voice within you
that’s ready to be heard.

And may you meet yourself fully
in the spaces you once avoided.
Because what was once unspoken
can become the language of your becoming.