Before Everything Ends

Dad, I wasn't your rising sun,
Not the race you cheered, the game I won.
Your silence carved a deeper scar
Than any word or shouting war.

At night, I heard Mom's muffled cries,
My sister's hush, the lull of lies.
Their grief wore veils of normal days---
A house of whispers, pain ablaze.

I bore your dreams like leaden weights,
Chasing smiles at locked gates.
Each nod withheld, each glance a toll---
I paid in silence, never whole.

I learned to laugh through phantom pain,
To stitch my wounds with scripted strain.
Now silence presses, cold and sheer---
Can you taste my final tear?

Would you recall the truths I faked?
The nights my quiet spirit ached?
I craved a pause, not pity's eyes---
Just space to fall without disguise.

Don't mock this hush I leave behind---
It's not surrender, but a kind
Of peace, I never dared to claim---
Not Romeo, but just a name.