The Quiet
She's not quiet because she's fine.
She's quiet because explaining
takes more energy
than she has left.
The thought is there.
Whole, heavy, real.
But getting it from the inside
to the outside
requires translation —
and the translator
is exhausted.
So she stops trying.
And the silence gets read
as *fine.*
As *cold.*
As *not caring.*
When it's the opposite.
She cares so much
that the distance between
what she feels
and what she can say about it
became too wide to cross today.
**This is not withdrawal.
This is the cost of translation
when the budget runs out.**
If someone you know
went quiet —
it might not be
that they have nothing to say.
It might be
that saying it
costs more than they have.