Unspoken: Poems of Love and Memory
Feather pen and ink illustration

The Ocean Behind His Eyes

About this poem

The Ocean Behind His Eyes is a poem about emotional walls, hidden vulnerability, and the ache of loving someone who keeps their deepest feelings locked away.

The ocean becomes a metaphor for a person who appears calm and distant on the surface while carrying an immense, unseen world within. The speaker does not ask him to reveal everything or to abandon the defenses he built to survive. She simply wants to stand beside him—to enter the deep without demanding that he drown.

At its heart, the poem is about the painful realization that love can offer a safe shore, yet still be unable to cross the distance someone has created within themselves.

Sometimes, the deepest love is not about breaking someone's walls. It is about standing at the shore, letting them know you are there, and accepting that they may never let you enter.

🎵 "sad solo flute music 575527 - Poorartistt (Pixabay Music)

Ocean inside a boy

What do you hide, boy,
behind that cold and unfeeling mask?
No one can detect you,
not even your own misunderstandings.

You are a vast ocean,
deep and immense,
yet still as glass on the surface .

When someone is hurt countless times,
they learn to cry in solitude,
to swallow their pain alone,
to resist the urge to speak.

With time, they master the art
of wearing a cold face perfectly,
while safely locking every feeling
away in secret vaults,
where no one, not even love,
can find them

But I was there.
I stood at the shore
with my arms open,
and I am still there.

I did not ask you to break the vault.
I did not ask you to drown.
I only asked you to let me stand beside you
in the deep.

I was there to hold you.
I am still here.

And you—
you are still an ocean
I cannot enter.

Arshia Sultana


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