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CalGraves
CalGraves
32/M/USA Hi I'm Cal, I like to write things. If you like what my brain makes please follow ♥️
There are shadows that don’t need light to exist. They find me in the stillness— no footsteps, just the pressure of presence. A sharpness, like something once broken still echoing through the body. The pain isn’t always real. But it’s always there. Ghost fingers, tight around the heart. Scars that never bled. Memories I never chose to keep. I don’t speak of it. Not because I can’t. Because I don’t know how to name what has no face. But somewhere, between each phantom ache and the silence that follows, a flicker stirs— thin, but alive. And I follow it. Even if I don’t know where it leads.
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Jul 1, 2025
Jul 1, 2025 at 12:34 PM UTC
The Shape it Left
the sorrow isn’t poetic it’s thick cold mud that pulls without mercy every breath feels borrowed from something deeper that wants me quiet I move but nothing lets go— chains wrapped in memory hands I never asked to hold me somewhere in that silence a spark quivers burning bitter in my veins small but mine I don’t know if this is healing or fury but I burn everything behind me to make room for something else the dark doesn’t disappear it just flinches and I with bleeding hands still climb.
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Jun 5, 2025
Jun 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM UTC
Weight of the Climb
I am the silence between words, the shadow that slips unnoticed through crowded rooms. No one looks my way, no eyes linger, not even for a moment. I walk past like a ghost, my name barely a whisper in the air, dissolving before it reaches anyone's ears. I speak, but it feels like I’m talking to walls, hoping the vibrations will reach somewhere, someone. But I am always alone. Invisible threads weave through me, tightening as the world goes on, oblivious, unaware of the emptiness I carry. I am not part of the conversation. I am the pause, the blank space, the forgotten afterthought. I try to shout, but my voice only echoes in my chest, bouncing back unanswered. In the sea of faces, I am the one that doesn’t register, the one who blends into the background, like a painting left to collect dust. I exist, but I am not seen. I feel the weight of this truth, heavy in the hollow places inside me. I am a story untold, a face without a name, a heartbeat no one notices because it’s too faint to matter. But I keep breathing, I keep moving. Because even if I’m invisible, I am still here, still waiting for someone to see me.
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Jun 3, 2025
Jun 3, 2025 at 2:53 PM UTC
Invisible Threads
There’s a silence we share, not of distance, but understanding, an echo of words unspoken, the heavy weight of thoughts that linger, a quiet that understands the weight of your skin, the racing of your pulse when you’re still, the sound of your mind when it calls for rest. I see the shadows you walk through, and though they may look different from mine, they too are haunted. This is your space now, in the silence, in the air between us. Take it. Breathe. You’re never as alone as you feel. The weight will pass. There’s light in this dark. And as you walk through it, know I’ve walked here too.
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Jun 2, 2025
Jun 2, 2025 at 9:00 AM UTC
In the Quiet Between Us
I write, not to remember, but to hold on to the fragments of a past that never lets go. The ink spills, a dark river, draining into the paper, painting the demons in full color. They dance in the corners of my mind, silent, but loud enough to echo in every word, every syllable, as if they want me to surrender. But I won’t. Not today. Not in this space. I lean into the shadows, but I don’t let them pull me under. I use them, familiar faces, unforgiven scars, ghosts I can almost touch. I let them circle, dancing dangerously close to the edge of my sanity, but I don’t let them hold me. I write because I need to see them. Not to glorify the ache, not to make it beautiful, but to acknowledge it— to say, “I know you’re there, but you won’t control me.” In this twisted ritual, I channel the darkness, put it on paper, where it can stay, where it can’t crawl back inside me and make my heart bleed again. I dance the line, between facing the past and losing myself in it. I stare down the abyss, knowing it can’t swallow me if I keep my feet moving, if I keep writing. So I write. Because sometimes, the only way to survive the storm is to let it rain.
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Jun 1, 2025
Jun 1, 2025 at 3:43 PM UTC
Dancing with the Ghosts
“Be a man.” Not just a voice— a chorus. Television scripts, locker room laughs, teachers with sharp smiles, uncles at funerals. The world said it over and over until it echoed in my chest louder than my heartbeat. Toughen up. Men don’t cry. Grow a spine. Don’t be weak. They called it growing up. I called it disappearing. So I swallowed softness, one emotion at a time— compassion, fear, grief, joy. Tied them in a knot and buried them behind my ribs where no one could see. Pain was a private ritual. Shame, a second skin. I learned to laugh when it hurt. To bleed in silence. To treat vulnerability like a sickness I couldn’t afford to show. They told me I was strong. And I am— but at what cost? There are days I touch my own reflection and feel nothing. There are nights when I want to scream, but all that comes out is a breath too tired to be heard. This is what boys are made of: wires where nerves should be, mirrors that never show weakness, and fists clenched so long we forgot how to hold anything gently. I survived. I adapted. I became the man they wanted. But sometimes, when it’s quiet, I ask myself— what did I lose to become him?
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May 31, 2025
May 31, 2025 at 8:44 AM UTC
What Boys Are Made Of
There’s a hallway in me I don’t walk anymore. Peeling wallpaper, footsteps that don’t echo right. I think you were there once, or maybe I placed you there, like a candle in a burned-out house. The mind is a liar with a soft voice. It tells me we laughed in that room where the screaming happened. It paints smiles over broken teeth. It places hands on my shoulder and forgets they used to bruise. I remember a lullaby stitched from silence. I remember warmth, but maybe it was fever. Maybe it was blood. Maybe it was survival pretending to be love. Photos rot in the drawer. I touch the faces like I’m blind, trying to recognize which ones were real and which ones wore me like a mask. There are days when I almost miss it. Not the pain, but the clarity of it. Now it’s just fog, a theater of soft lies replaying with the volume turned low. I smile sometimes, but it’s reflex, like a corpse twitching as the nerves forget they’re not alive.
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May 30, 2025
May 30, 2025 at 1:04 PM UTC
Glass Shard Reverie
I’ve stood at the edge of so many beginnings— just close enough to taste them, never close enough to stay. The door always slightly ajar, never open. I want to be more than a shadow of almost. People call me potential, but never presence. A promise, not a person. Their faith feels like fog— thin and disappearing the moment I reach for it. I want to be more than a shadow of almost. I speak like I know who I am, but the echo doesn’t agree. My words crumble in my mouth before they ever build meaning. Even my hope sounds rehearsed. I want to be more than a shadow of almost. I dream in color, but live in grayscale. My hands stretch forward but always fall short— of the vision, of the version of me I thought I’d be by now. I want to be more than a shadow of almost. So I write. I bleed ink and silence trying to draw a shape that feels like truth. And maybe one day, I’ll look back and see I was becoming all along. I want to be more than a shadow of almost.
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May 30, 2025
May 30, 2025 at 12:22 PM UTC
Shadow of Almost