Bound by Choice

No walls. No locks. No force. And yet, we stay.
Not because we’re held, but because leaving weighs more than remaining.

Freedom lingers just beyond reach -not barred, just… uninvited.

We tell ourselves it’s choice.
But if it truly were - why does it ache like loss?

Some call it love.
Some call it fear.
Most don’t call it anything at all.
Just a quiet surrender.
Chains, self-forged.
So familiar we stopped noticing the weight.