"Are you okay?"
It's been so long since someone asked me that,
Perhaps that's why tears sting my eyes when they do.
I still don't know how to reply.
Do I brush it off with a casual, "Yeah, all good!"
Or do I unravel the tangled web of my intrusive thoughts?
There are days when the silence is deafening,
When loneliness wraps around me like a shroud.
Nights when sleep eludes me, haunted by endless worries.
I wonder if they see the cracks beneath my smile,
Or if my facade is too convincing.
Do they truly want to know, or is it just a courtesy?
Should I tell them about the weight I carry,
The fears that gnaw at me in the dead of night?
Or should I protect them from the darkness within?
I long for someone to see beyond the mask,
To offer a hand and say, "It's okay to not be okay."
But vulnerability feels like standing on the edge of a cliff.
What if they turn away, unable to handle my truth?
What if they stay, and I become a burden?
So many questions, and no easy answers.
"Are you okay?" they ask,
And I still don't know how to reply.
Caught between the need for connection
And the fear of being too much.
In the end, I nod and say, "Yeah, all good,"
Hoping one day, I'll find the courage
To say what I really feel.
YOU ARE READING
Trapped in my own head
PoetryShe is an outcast. She finds it easier to express what she feels in the form of writing. Whether it is poems, letters or long texts. These are poems that she writes trying to describe how it feels to live with certain mental health issues, in a worl...
