it’s what we don’t talk about that hurts more than anything the non-existence of my existence the emptiness within the void the echo of a silence within the silence the feeling i’m on mute and you and the world are ok with that so we continue to not talk about what we don’t talk about and the silence becomes stifling but we bear it and even pretend we don’t hear or smell or taste it till that one day we’ll be so submerged in it that we’ll let it swallow us whole AP: 2nd place 2023, Honorable Mention 2023 Posted on April 22, 2023