Anthony Hanible

There’s a Bullet in My Brain

There’s a bullet in my brain

But it’s not made of metal

it’s a thought lodged too deep to dig out with quiet hands.

It hums when the world goes silent

A small, bright shard of yesterday that refuses to dissolve.

Some nights it pulses like a warning

Other nights it sleeps like a stone.

I walk carefully around it

As if one wrong step might set the whole mind trembling

Still, I live

With the echo

With the weight

With the strange reminder that even wounds can become architecture.

There’s a bullet in my brain

But I’ve learned to build around it

To let the light in through the cracks

To let the truth ring louder than the fear of breaking.

And maybe one day it will loosen its grip

Fall out like an old belief I no longer need

But until then

I breathe

I rise

I move carrying the proof that I survived what tried to stay inside me.