The Sentence That Refuses Me

There’s a sentence I keep not saying. Not because I don’t know it, but because I know it too well.

I phrase it three different ways and call that “care.” I add context and call that “responsibility.” I wait for the perfect moment and call that “timing.”

But the real reason is simpler: I’m afraid of what becomes true once I speak it in front of someone else.

Sometimes the sentence refuses me because it doesn’t want to be a performance. It wants to be a fact.

And I’m still learning the difference between being careful and being quiet.