The Calm Before the Storm

By Ayaan Anwar

He laughs at jokes and joins in 
A boy who always looks at ease 
 He carries peace like outer skin
 But never shows the scars that mar
 The wounds that scream beneath the grin.

The world knows him for his smile
 An art  he perfected long ago
 The art of hiding silent storms
 Of letting fire burn him slow.

No one sees the pain he swallows
 The dreams he entombed in shadowed hollows.

 Behind the walls he has build around him 
 He hides his grief and he masks his guilt.
He smiles so others do not break
 A crumbling boy for the sake of others.

 He helps the world, then turns alone
 And fights the dark without a sound.

They all call him calm....how little they know.
 He’s calm the way deep rivers flow:
 When winds arise and silence shatters
 That calm becomes the storm that scatters

 A force that breaks all in its wake,
 A quiet peace that learns to quake.
He's not the kind to rage or shout
 He feels too much to let it out.

 So he retreats, avoids the fight
 And disappears into the night.
He walks alone through wind and rain
 A boy who’s mastered silent pain.

But oh, if they could only see..
 The child inside who longs to be
 Held without having to explain
 Loved through all the quiet pain.

So if one day he slips from sight
 Know he was drowning....just too polite.