Maybe In Another Life. Poem by Elena M

Maybe in another life,
when I no longer wear protective masks,
I won't wear words as a shield either —
only soft silences,
like autumn leaves fallen
on the temple of the world, beyond all pain.

Maybe in another life.
Maybe there,
a stranger will look into my eyes
and read in them what I cannot,
and maybe he'll discover all the poems
I never wrote,
or couldn't quite whisper
enough to write them into proper verse.

Maybe there,
he will hear all my screams
spoken only in thought,
even if I'll be
too afraid to admit the truth.
Maybe,
in that life,
with no road back,
I won't have to explain
why my silence tastes like rain,
and why I smile
only when no one sees me
on my better days.
Maybe he, there,
will know.

Maybe he'll know
without me asking first,
without me stripping away my soul
only to forget how to clothe it again.
Maybe then —
in a corner of infinity that's mine alone
where time doesn't rush to leave me —
my eyes
will finally
be understood by a stranger.