We felt it shift beneath the floor

A hairline crack across the room

We turned the volume down instead

Let daylight blur the bruise

We watched the air grow slightly thin

Watched language start to bend

We chose the quiet over rupture

Let the fracture mend itself

Not now

Not here

We kept the peace

We kept it clean

We kept our hands

Out of the scene

The darker voices found their shape

The sharper words began to stay

We measured consequence in sleep

And turned our faces half away

We called it balance

Called it time

Let something root between the lines

Not ours

Not yet

And fed the fire

We kept the peace

And built it higher

Nothing loud

Nothing sudden

Just space

And something growing in it

We kept the peace

And watched it spread

We kept the peace

And lost the ground

You were not afraid of evil

You were afraid of conflict!