I Still Breathe

I served one year behind a steel door,

Counting cracks in the concrete floor.

I carried pains that were never mine,

Still saw a spark in the county light.

They called me outcast, loner, fool,

Passed me around like a broken tool.

Friends wore smiles while they twisted the truth,

Gaslit the scars I was hiding from view.

They tried to write my ending down,

But I learned to stand on shaking ground.

But I still breathe, I still breathe,

They never took the heart from me.

Head held high, feet on the ground,

I speak for the ones without a sound.

Through every wound, through every street,

They never took the heart from me.

I still breathe, I still breathe—

They never broke me, they never broke me.

I’ve been beaten by hands and by words,

Harassed till silence was all they heard.

Stalked through the places I called my own,

Bullied and left like a name on a stone.

Misunderstood by the ones I trusted,

Disrespected, abandoned, dusted.

I carried the burdens the unseen bear,

Felt every cry in the empty air.

They tried to make me disappear,

But I found my voice beneath the fear.

But I still breathe, I still breathe,

They never took the heart from me.

Head held high, feet on the ground,

I speak for the ones without a sound.

Through every wound, through every street,

They never took the heart from me.

I still breathe, I still breathe—

They never broke me, they never broke me.

For the weak ones standing in the rain,

For the quiet ones swallowing pain,

I’ll carry no shame for surviving the fall,

I’ll raise my voice till it reaches them all.

The world may remember the marks on my skin,

But I remember the fight within.

No borrowed blame, no locked-up past

Can tell this living heart it won’t last.

But I still breathe, I still breathe,

They never took the heart from me.

Head held high, feet on the ground,

I speak for the ones without a sound.

Through every wound, through every street,

They never took the heart from me.

I still breathe, I still breathe—

They never broke me, they never broke me.

Still here, still breathing,

Still standing, still believing.

Head held high, come what may—

They never broke me yesterday.