What Was Held Too Long

When things happens to children that it shouldn’t

There are wounds the world can never see,

Quiet echoes buried deep

Where a child once learned too early,

How silence learns to keep



What happened was not yours to bear,

Not yours to understand

A weight no soul should ever hold,

Placed in far too small a hand



And all these years you’ve carried it,

Like it’s yours to justify

But pain can root so deeply,

When no one hears the cry



Your feelings have a rightful place,

They’re real, they’re yours, they’re true

No one gets to measure them

Or say what you went through



But what was done does not define,

The man you’ve grown to be

It lives within your story,

Not your whole identity



You are more than what has hurt you,

More than what you hide

More than all the silent nights,

You’ve battled deep inside



And healing isn’t erasing,

It’s learning to release

Loosening the grip of pain,

To finally breathe in peace



You don’t have to hold it forever,

You don’t have to stay in that place

Where the past still grips your present,

And shadows are in every space



There is life beyond the memory,

There is light you still can claim

You are not what someone did to you,

You are not their shame



So take your time, but know this truth,

As steady as your breath:

You deserve a life not ruled,

By something tied to death



And when you’re ready - step by step,

Not rushed, not forced, just free

You can set it down… and still be whole,

Still be the man you’re meant to be

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