Silent Rebellion of the Self

These walls are thin, but enduring.

Built from whispers passed down generations,

stitched with threads of fear,

and patched with tradition’s heavy hand.

I was born into this maze,

its corridors marked by expectations I didn’t choose.

“Don’t speak too loudly,” they said,

for a loud voice is unruly, ungrateful.

“Don’t ask too many questions,” they warned,

for questions are knives that cut the fabric of belonging.

I learned to fold myself small,

to bend into shapes that pleased the room.

But the wind carries stories of other lands,

where silence isn’t a virtue

and conformity isn’t a currency for love.

I catch glimpses through cracks in the plaster,

a world that doesn’t demand sacrifice of the self

for the sake of the collective mirage.

The struggle isn’t a single moment;

It's a quiet, relentless rebellion.

A hand stretched toward forbidden books,

a voice trembling as it says, “I don’t agree.”

It’s the ache of loneliness

when you turn your back on a room full of people

who call themselves your kin.

Yet, there is a joy in peeling back the layers,

in discovering the skin beneath

is softer, warmer, alive with its own pulse.

The walls don’t crumble all at once;

they collapse in slow echoes,

brick by brick, silence by silence.

Some days, the rubble feels like a victory.

Other days, it feels like a grave.

I’ve heard that freedom has a cost,

but no one told me the price would be

the haunting question:

Am I betraying them, or have they betrayed me?

Still, the horizon pulls me forward,

a reminder that love doesn’t chain,

it doesn’t punish curiosity or difference.

Love builds bridges from ashes,

finds beauty in the mosaic of a fractured identity.

And so, I walk,

one foot in the shadow of what was,

the other in the light of what could be.

Not whole, not healed,

but free enough to dream

of a day when my voice no longer trembles,

and the walls become nothing but dust.

about the poet

Vaani Sai (she/they) is a writer, neuroscience researcher, and creativity coach who believes in the transformative power of creativity. She began scribbling poetry as a teenager, using it as a refuge to navigate grief. Once healing took root, poetry felt distant—but now, Vaani is rediscovering the art of writing between the lines.