Therapy Bits

My thanks to Fandango!

FOWC With Fandango — Intimidation – Facts, Fictions & Fantasies

They walk like thunder,
feet echoing in linoleum waves,
eyes sharp as broken glass,
words dripping with laughter
meant to slice.

I shrink,
a breath held too long,
a shadow stitched
to the wall.

There is a science to silence.
To knowing when to disappear
without moving.

Their jokes aren’t funny—
but everyone laughs.
Because laughter
is safer than defiance.

My name twists
in their mouths like a curse.
A badge of difference,
a signal flare
for humiliation.

Intimidation isn’t
always fists.
Sometimes it’s the glance
you dare not meet.
The waiting.
The knowing.
The trap set in every passing period.

And the ache that comes
not from bruises,
but from being
unseen
except as target.

I count tiles.
I pray for bells.
I learn to become
the kind of quiet
they might forget.

But even then—
even then—
they always remember.