We met when the world was crayons and glue, Best friends since the first bell rang true. Back when scraped knees meant nothing at all, And you were the first name I’d call. Now your world feels heavier each day, You’re thirteen, but it’s slipping away. Cradling a baby that’s not your own Yet calling you “mama” in a tired tone. Your mom should be holding that child tight, Not passing the torch in the middle of night. But you just keep giving, without a sound, While pieces of you fall to the ground. She tells you I’m wrong for your life, That I bring trouble, not light. But I remember who you were before Before you became what she ignores. You remind me so much of my kin, My cousin who shut the world out, locked in. She reached out once then drifted like smoke, And now all our words are the ones we don’t spoke. I message, I wait, then silence again, Just like I’m waiting for you, my friend. We were a promise, sealed in time, Now I’m stuck in the pause of a broken rhyme. But if one day you look for me too, I’ll still be the same waiting for you. A safe hello if you need to roam, A hand, a hug, a place called home.