Behind My Smile

There's a silence in the way I answer

When they ask me if I'm doing fine

So I shift the subject

Before the truth reaches my voice

Every memory I buried

Still echoes through the noise

They think the storm has passed already

Like time erased what still remains

But when the lights go out around me

Every shadow calls my pain

I built a mask out of survival

Something calm, something controlled

But underneath the quiet surface

There's a wound nobody knows

Now I wear a smile like armor

A perfect lie I learned to show

The world believes I'm standing strong

But they don't hear the pain below

I say I'm strong, I play my part

Trying to walk each day in light

But in the dark the truth keeps shining

I look okay... but I'm not alright

I try to hold myself together

Through the daylight, through it all

Like every scar inside me

Might someday fade and fall

Healing isn't always loud

Sometimes it barely even starts

You can hide it from the whole world

But never from your heart

I've learned to master desperation

How to breathe without a sound

How to walk among the living

While my heart stays underground

Now I wear a smile like armor

A perfect lie I learned to show

The world believes I'm standing strong

But they don't feel the weight below

I say I'm strong, play my part

Trying to walk each day in light

But in the dark the truth keeps shining

I look okay... but I'm not alright

Maybe hiding isn't healing

Maybe strength can still be pain

Maybe silence is just another way

To hide the ghosts inside my brain

I've learned to carry every memory

Like a fire beneath my skin

Not every wound that stops its bleeding

Ever truly heals within