Poem 36 - Before the Silence Took Me

There comes a time

when rejection ceases to wound
and becomes a dwelling place.

I lived there.

Among people,
yet unseen.
Among voices,
yet unheard.

The world had a place for everyone,
or so it seemed;
except for the man standing quietly
at the edge of it all.

I was poor,
but poverty was not the cruellest thing.
The cruellest thing
was learning how easily a human being
can disappear while still alive.

No one came to my door.
No one asked my name.
Days passed like shadows across a wall,
leaving nothing behind but hunger.

The air I breathed felt heavy.
My throat burned with thirst.
I drank whatever water I could find,
ate whatever remained after life
had fed everyone else.

And still,
I endured.

Then even endurance began to leave me.

My lips trembled.
My heartbeat stumbled.
The world before my eyes
slowly surrendered its colours.

Sound drifted away.
Strength deserted my limbs.
Something inside me;
quiet and invisible;
began slipping beyond reach.

I stood at the border
between life and oblivion,
not fearing death,
but wondering whether anyone
had ever truly noticed
that I was here.

And as darkness gathered around me,
that question remained,
more painful than hunger,
more relentless than loneliness;

whether a forgotten soul
ever mattered at all.