Silence became my default setting
For my input and voice.
Never received an outlet,
Never met recognition
Or value in its contribution.
So the voice retreated,
Found home in a mind
Where the corpses of past selves
Remain buried,
Remaining a sprawling graveyard.
Preprogrammed responses rise,
Shifting the weight and responsibility
Of input onto others.
If my contribution
Is never inserted,
The backlash from dismissal
Shall lose its power to sting.
So silence gained a companion,
A relationship which grows,
Forming self into a shell
Which mistrusts what it knows.
The knowledge it possesses
Becomes archived,
Never to reach the ears of others,
All while my mind
Replays optimized responses
For conversations long held,
Ones I never contributed to
In earnest.

