When I was a kid,
I thought the world was like the one in the cartoons
The hero dressed in his red, white, and blue would always fly in and save the day
And the despicable criminals would always be diabolical in every way imaginable
We would each have an archenemy, a Lex Luthor, made of pure evil, deserving punishment
But like the cartoons, this wasn’t my reality

In the second grade, that girl was assigned to sit beside me
Quickly, she became my villain and tormentor, my bully
And everyday, without fail, she made me feel worthless like I wasn’t even human
She suffocated me with words like midget and stupid
Drowning my ears and tearing me to pieces
Never to be glued together the same way again
School became a game of hide and seek
I would stand still trying to not be seen
Hoping that for just one day she would give me paradise and forget me…

But she never did

To me, she didn’t deserve a name- only enemy
Then one day, tragedy struck and all that remained was a fatherless girl fearful and alone
Her eyes reflected sorrow and fragility
And what I saw in her wasn’t a degenerate villain or enemy but Gabby,
A girl lost and broken, wanting someone clad in red, white, and blue
And though I was certainly no hero, anyone would do

Reality isn’t black and white with unblemished victims and heartless bullies
Reality is a mixture of hues of beauty and anguish tingled with a pain that is universal
What was burrowed in my heart was real and so was hers
But scars never heal
And my heart was covered in them
I couldn’t simply forget the past torments and tortures…

No one could

But what I saw in Gabby wasn’t my pain but hers.