Cheating

They cheated you of softness 

Of the easy kind of love they hand out

like candy in storybooks.

They cheated you of warm hugs at

the end of hard days,

of a voice that said, “I see you, you matter.”

They left you to build yourself with empty hands,

to stitch your own heart with threads made of silence and longing.

And you grew a garden in the hollow

they left behind.

You taught your soul to stay tender,

to give freely, to believe in love

even when it showed up late,

or small, or not at all.

You are a miracle they forgot to imagine