What Strangers Know

The teenage years return some mornings

---

that old questioning of worth,

the careful construction of confidence

crumbling with one dismissive word.

But strangers see what lives beneath

the doubt, offer easy praise

for thoughts shared, kindness given,

the way you listen without judgement.

Between the pages of a book,

pencil moving across paper,

you remember who you were becoming

before you had to prove your feelings.

The person strangers recognize

has never left, only learned

to tend the quiet flame within

when the world forgets to see.