The Poetry Someone Needs

I've been searching

for the right words

to put in my poems.

Counting syllables

against the weight of someone's approval,

wondering if a poem falls silent

when the wrong person doesn't hear it.

“They will always be mountains to cross,
and we all have to bear the cross
the cross to success.”

Yes, there are many people
who need these words.

But what about those
who need something else?

The stories coated in lines,
the emotions spilled like paint,
the words that don't promise
everything will be okay.

So when I pick up my pen
and write about a single mother
struggling with herself
and the world,

or a couple
frightened by their own love,

or someone standing at the edge
of a decision
they don't know how to make

know that it is poetry.

Not every poem
has to speak to everyone.

Maybe it only needs
to find the one person
who sees themselves
between the lines.

The one who needed
someone to put their feelings
into words.

The one who thought
they were the only one.

So I will keep writing
the stories that hurt,
the stories that heal,
the stories that don't have
a neat ending.

Because I don't write
so everyone can understand me.

I write
because somewhere,
someone may finally
understand themselves.