The Version They Never Met

There's a version

not scared to speak,

who doesn't watch words

like they might crack and bleed.

A version who lets softness stay,

who laughs without looking around,

who doesn't fold to fit,

or sink just to be found.

This version never makes themselves small

just to be loved.

Never hides the parts

that tremble or are rough.

That version stays buried

beneath silence,

beneath trying too hard

for acceptance and guidance.

No one ever meets them.

But some nights,

they come like a ghost

in the soft, sleepless lights.

Sanskriti Arora