Roll call echoes off the pines
Cabin bunks draw crooked lines
Towels, trunks, and nervous grins
Everybody wants to box you in
She sits still while the loud kids bite
Dead-still eyes in the bug-zap light
They call it strange, they call it shy
They never ask what silence hides
Laugh it off, throw the stone
Leave her standing there alone
Say it’s camp, say it’s fun
Count the bodies one by one
Around the campfire
Secrets start to bleed
Cruelty makes a monster
Of the truth they do not see
Around the campfire
No one gets out clean
Don’t trust the quiet camper
When the cabins start to scream
Kitchen steam and a locked-in grin
A grown hand reaching where fear begins
Call it nothing, keep lunch on time
Boiling water writes the first red line
A canoe goes quiet in the moonlit weeds
A bathroom buzzes like a hive of teeth
The loud boy burns like a warning flare
But the real wrong turn is the empty stare
Laugh it off, throw the stone
Leave her standing there alone
Say it’s camp, say it’s fun
Count the bodies one by one
Around the campfire
Secrets start to bleed
Cruelty makes a monster
Of the truth they do not see
Around the campfire
No one gets out clean
Don’t trust the quiet camper
When the cabins start to scream
The smile at home was a painted door
The name on the bunk was a uniform
A child who lived, became imprisoned
Folded into someone else’s vision
The campfire dies with a sick little flip
And the whole night tilts on a final twist
If she were any quieter, she’d be dead
Now the lake shoreline is covered in red!
Quiet camper, kitchen red
Boiling water, blistered dead
Moonlit lake, lungs go black
Canoe tips once and won’t come back
QUIET CAMPER
SUPPRESSING A LIE
SEVERED HEAD
ONE LAST CRY
Around the campfire
Secrets start to bleed
Cruelty makes a monster
Of the truth they do not see
Around the campfire
No one gets out clean
Don’t trust the quiet camper
When the cabins start to scream