Silent Stories have guards. 

The ones that cannot be told. 

Wrap themselves

Hide themselves

Find a dark place

And without permission

Without choice

Build their fortress. 

Build their army. 

Hidden to protect. 

Hidden to fester.

Hidden to haunt. 

The story doesn’t go away. 

It lies there, 

day after cruel day. 

In its own great devouring. 

Tomb like stone

Bleak like the graveyard.

Death. Trickling its torment. 

Poking. 

Provoking.

Protruding. 

Re- minding. 

Haunted stories with guards. 

Lying. 

Lying. 

You can’t go there

You cant

Ill destroy you

They say. 

Im too big.

Im too frightening

Im your story, and you don’t want me. 

They say. 

This is too painful

This is too real

Have a life running, at least its life

They say. 

Youre small. 

Youre sinful

You did this.

They say.

Guards given their lines,

From the lies that once fed them. 

You are responsible.

You are to blame

You did all this

Your story is your fault. 

You can’t live with this. 

You can’t go there. 

You can’t cope now. Let alone with this opened. 

They say….they stamping their feet

Guarding a story. 

Guarding a story that festers

That devours. 

One unspoken lie at a time. 

One ‘Im fine’ at a time.

One ‘I’ll get through this’ at a time

One mask later. 

One avoidance at a time. 

The story that cannot be met

The story hidden in the shadows

The story veiled. 

shrouded

Protected

By its guards. 

Living like an uninvited parasite

Devouring its host. 

Devouring waking lives

Devouring the soul from the inside

Truth hidden. Lies exposed. 

Truth hidden. Lies given a free pass. 

To keep fractures alive. 

The stories have guards. 

Protecting their truth from being seen. 

The stories, we darednt go to

The story we can’t tell, or can’t face

Protected by the guards

Emboldened in the wastelands of the mind

Where memories fear to tread. 

Locking the story within. 

Deep into the recesses of the void.

Where its Power.

Haunts every waking step

And every sleeping dream. 

The Story hiding its face. 

Unloved. 

Unattended to

Frightened. 

Fearful. 

Tasking its guards to never let it be seen. 

They run wild

Operation self protection. 

The great devouring of the stories never told. 

The great devouring of the pain never loved

The great devouring of the life never lived fully

The great devouring of freedom never experienced

The great devouring of a life staying small. 

The great devouring of lies insipid lies

The great devouring

That a story

can do

As it eats alive its host

One memory at a time.

One regret.

One haunted pain, so deep.

One suppression

One mask

At a time.