The Light Beneath the Floorboards
The hallway’s quiet, every frame aligned,
Nothing spills past the border of dinnertime.She
feeds the dog in a house gone numb,
He finishes whiskey, words unsaid,
damage done.Windows hum a broken chord behind white trim,
Neighbors wave, perfect lawns,
hiding all within.Questions vanish with the clink of plates,
No one asks what “safe” negates.
She finds a tooth behind the easy chair,
Tucks it away, learns not to care.He smiles a kindness sharpened by threat—Grips her
shoulder in a grip she won’t forget.She whispers secrets to the bathroom mirror,
Trains her tears to fall in silence, disappear.The night closes in,
slow as shame,
She learns to freeze when someone calls her name.
Grass stays trimmed, the porch swing oiled,No one notices innocence spoiled.They
patch the fence, repaint the door,Never hear her crying on the floor.
There’s a light beneath the floorboards,
Trapped beneath the weight of years—A flicker of truth that never finds air,
Bedtime songs warped by hidden fears.Monsters linger past the lullaby,
She sleeps in clothes that never dry.Dreams taste like smoke and cinder,
She curls around a lighter all winter.
She draws the house with hollow rooms,
Walls grown thick with old perfumes.Attic left blank, the broom left aside,
No friends over, nowhere to confide.She mutters “Dad gets mad” to a blank stare,
Teachers mark it down, then leave her there.
You taught her shame, you built her mask,You smiled for the neighbors,
never asked.Sin buried deep, like secrets in
dust,She learned to hide what others call trust.
This isn’t normal—this is learned,
Violence unnamed, patterns returned.She prayed for fire to end the test,
Discovered no angels clean this mess.Silence teaches what the sermons miss,
Her faith burned down to an ember’s hiss.
There’s a light beneath the floorboards,
Where justice never found the stairs.Each night she hides,
skin bruised and thin—Inside a house that traps her in.Called it safe,
called it fine,
But that girl burns behind the blinds.Truth glows faint in the dark below,
Still waiting for someone to know.