The House That Swallowed Me Poem by New Girl Dark NewGirlDark

'The House That Swallowed Me'

I grew up holding keys not mine,
open doors… but I stayed inside.

Tired hands, a childhood gone,
playing mother before I was one.

Plates not mine, names that weigh,
my voice silent while others stayed.

I was the shadow, I was the hands,
doing all they wouldn't stand.

Now that I let go… they pull me back,
say I've changed, say I lack.

But no…
it wasn't love, it was a cage,
silent nights, a borrowed age.

It wasn't home, it was a role,
I was never in control.

And if I leave…
they say someone changed me,
but I'm just finally free.

Late, broken… but still me.

They blame the wind that touches my skin,
blame the world I'm walking in.

But the cage was always there,
I just learned to see it clear.

I don't want to die…
I just don't want to live like this,
tied to a life I didn't pick.

If I fade into the night,
it's not surrender… it's escape.

No…
it wasn't love, it was a cage,
my whole life trapped on a page.

Even if it breaks me apart,
I choose the world… I choose my heart.

And if they look… I won't be there,
the one who stayed… disappeared.

And now the walls still know my name,
they whisper softly through the frame.

Every hallway tastes like fear,
every memory still lives here.

I learned too young that love could bleed,
that kindness grows attached to need.

They called it family, called it care,
while slowly teaching me despair.

I became the silence in every room,
a living ghost inside their doom.

Smiling gently, speaking low,
while something rotten started to grow.

No one noticed how I disappeared,
how every year I looked more tired.

A body moving, eyes gone cold,
a soul collapsing quietly at home.

Sometimes I wonder who I'd be
if nobody had needed me.

If I had grown with empty hands
instead of chains disguised as plans.

They only loved the version bent,
the one that broke and never left.

But freedom terrifies the blind,
especially those who fear their own minds.

So when I walked toward the night,
they called my darkness selfishness.

But cages always hate the moment
their birds remember they have wings.

And maybe I am damaged now,
stitched together wrong somehow.

Too sensitive for this cruel place,
too full of storms no smile can erase.

But pain opened my eyes enough
to see survival is not love.

I was drowning while calling it loyalty.

Bleeding while calling it patience.

Vanishing while calling it duty.

Not anymore.

Now even if the world destroys me,
at least the ruins will belong to me.

At least my tears will finally fall
inside a life that feels like mine at all.

And if one day they speak my name
like a tragedy, like a shame…
let them.

Because the child they buried alive
finally clawed her way outside.

@NewGirlDark