Silent Scars - By: Chris Odiagah

If I had a scar for every tear I’ve shed,

every night spent alone,

in the dark, just waiting to be called home—

if my skin could show the cuts that weren’t healed,

the sticky, ragged wounds that bled,

through my fingers

without a single embrace to slow their fall.

A winding web of blood and pain,

etched like chalk into a windowpane—

but you couldn’t see it.

You can’t see it.

My wounds are torn inside—

I’ve been turned inside-out,

never strong enough to set my insides free,

never able to pull the barbed wire

that winds tight in my throat.

So I hide behind the glass of the front door—

but there’s no key.

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.

The poem focuses on the internal struggle many of us face when dealing with our emotions and the difficulty we have in discussing those feelings, especially in public. There is still a lot of stigma and avoidance towards mental health, such that talking about it can be triggering for some people. With this poem I tried to explain the similarity between physical and emotional pain and the importance of creating an environment where individuals are not afraid to express their feelings, no matter what they are.

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.

While writing, I imagined what all of my emotions and thoughts would look like on the outside, and then turned those feelings into physical images to make the invisible visible. The metaphors I used--scars, blood, wounds--they felt like the most vivid and strong forms of evidence that served proof of my injuries, proof I don't have. And the glass door? That's how I sometimes feel, as if people can see me but they can't really reach me. And there's no way to let them in.

Why did you choose to write this poem?

I wrote Silent Scars because I wanted to express the kind of pain that exists beneath the surface, the type of pain that people often overlook--or want to overlook. Writing this poem meant that I could give shape and voice to a topic that's difficult to explain in everyday conversation, and showing that internal struggles are still real and deserve understanding.