The Sound of Walls
Anger is not fire.
It is the sound of walls
straining not to crack.
It arrives without a knock—
sometimes quiet as steam
pressing through the cracks
of a soul sealed too long.
Sometimes loud—
a slammed door,
a word flung too fast
to ever catch again.
We have been taught to cage it,
label it dangerous,
call it wrong before we ask:
Why has it come?
But anger is not a monster.
It is a signal.
A trembling voice that says:
"This mattered to me."
"I wanted control."
"I didn’t feel safe."
Feelings don’t know day from night.
They don’t sort themselves into good or bad.
They rise to say: You are still alive.
Still paying attention.
Still hoping.
This is not about rage
that wounds others.
This is about the ember that flickers
when you have held too much
and said too little.
The ache of being misunderstood
for too long.
Anger is the sound of self-respect
knocking from the inside,
asking to be heard
before it turns to flame.
So listen.
Ask it what it needs.
Not to manage it—
but to understand it,
to hold it long enough
that it softens
and tells you the truth.
With Grace & Ink,
Mai