I grew up with the word “No”
Echoing through my life like a broken song,
Each time I tried to reach for something,
The world reminded me I didn\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a child, I learned how to hide my heart,
Burying it beneath layers of quiet pain,
Rejection wasn’t just a moment, it was a place
A house I lived in, under constant hate from those close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends? They were just whispers in the wind,
Never staying long enough to hold my hand.
Family? Well, they tried their best,
But even love felt like a line drawn in the sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
School was a battlefield I never won,
Too scared to speak, too tired to fight,
I carried their words home in my chest,
Shutting down before the end of every night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I grew up thinking maybe I wasn’t enough,
Maybe I was born with something missing.
“Why can’t they see me?” I often asked,
But the world kept its distance, never listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I\u2019m grown, but those scars still ache,
The child inside me never learned to trust,
I wear my silence like armor every day,
Still waiting for the world to say, \u201cYou\u2019re one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pretend I don\u2019t care, I\u2019ve gotten good at that,
Laugh it off, shrug it away,
But deep down, I\u2019m still that child,
Longing for a place where I can finally stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, somehow, through it all, I\u2019ve survived,
I\u2019ve learned to stand on my shaky feet.
Each rejection a lesson, a wound that healed,
Though the hurt still lingers, I refuse to retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe one day, I’ll open my own door,
Let love and acceptance find their way in,
But for now, I keep walking forward,
Even if it\u2019s with the ghost of where I\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by walking shadow poetry Kenya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I grew up with the word “No”Echoing through my life like a broken song,Each time I tried to reach for something,The world reminded me I didn\u2019t belong. As a child, I learned how to hide my heart,Burying it beneath layers of quiet pain,Rejection wasn’t just a moment, it was a placeA house I lived in, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,25,98],"tags":[35,49,34,67,50,61,55,53,22,48],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-solitude","category-storytime","tag-poems","tag-poetess","tag-poetry","tag-preciousowoko","tag-spokenword","tag-spokenwords","tag-stories","tag-story","tag-walkingshadowpoetry","tag-walkingshadowpoetrykenya"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-6147126.jpeg?fit=1880%2C1220&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2604,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/a-battle-i-never-chose-by-walking-shadow-poetry-kenya\/","url_meta":{"origin":2600,"position":0},"title":"A Battle I Never Chose by walking shadow poetry Kenya.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"September 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve carried this weight since I was a child,Rejection met me when I was too young to understand.The words they threw stuck like barbed wire in my skin,I grew up wearing it like an invisible cloakTrying to be good enough, trying to fit in. 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You taught me silence, not with words,But by the things I never heard.No \u201cI\u2019m proud,\u201d no \u201cI see you grow,\u201dJust empty stares, and \u201cI told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "poem"","block_context":{"text":"poem","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poem\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-4.png?fit=720%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-4.png?fit=720%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-4.png?fit=720%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/download-4.png?fit=720%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3241,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/i-let-you-go-because-i-learned-to-love-me-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":2600,"position":2},"title":"I Let You Go, Because I Learned to Love Me Too","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"April 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn\u2019t just wake up feeling strong.That strength grew from late nights,Tear-stained pillows, and quiet prayers I barely managed to say.So many times, I couldn\u2019t breathe from the weight of questions I never got answers to.I kept asking myself what I did wrong,Why love couldn\u2019t fix it,Why I kept holding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "poem"","block_context":{"text":"poem","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poem\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0043-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0043-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0043-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0043-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0043-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3343,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/they-never-ever-believed-in-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":2600,"position":3},"title":"They never ever believed in Me","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"July 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"They didn\u2019t clap.Not when I tried.Not when I stayed up all night just to prove a point.Not when I kept showing up with a voice no one heard. 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