Hidden souls

People are not absent.
Sadly, authenticity is.

I think that is what exhausts me the most lately.

Not distance.
Not silence.
But conversations that never arrive anywhere real.

Everyone knows how to appear.
How to seem unaffected.
How to speak without revealing too much.

We hide honesty behind irony.
Feelings behind “I’m just tired.”
Longing behind delayed replies.

Everyone wants connection.
Nobody wants to be seen.

And sometimes I wonder:

How the hell am I supposed to find my pendant in a world afraid to be real?