She yearned to belong,
But they dismissed her,
Ridiculed her tiny missteps,
and she began to doubt her own worth.
She wasn't foolish,
She simply didn't understand the rules
Of a game, she never chose to play.

Drawn by the joy of others,
She tried to build her own sandcastles:
Delicate towers of hope.
But when she sought to create,
She faltered.
Not for lack of art
For sandcastles crumble under the weight
Of a careless touch.

In that moment,
The painful truth surfaced:
Happiness was a distant shore,
Out of reach in a world
Where the weight of abandonment,
The sting of mockery,
Crushed her spirit,
Leaving her adrift,
Searching for a place she could
Never truly find