Shadowed Spotlight

You’ve spent all your life being moved out of the spotlight of your own play,
Pushed aside to let the real stars take charge,
The priorities of their lives cutting your lines,
And stealing your scenes.

Even more frustrating, you let them.
You let yourself get pushed to the background
And become a prop in other people’s stories,
And never take your chance to take charge of your own.

You’re that person they see and talk to during the week
But never think to reach out to during weekends or breaks.
You’re that girl they’ll vaguely remember from school

You’re the relative who gets forgotten the moment they leave the room
But remembered as soon as something needs to be done.

You’re the student who can be relied upon to always get the job done
But is never called out for your good work.

You exist in the minds of others,
Only when they need something

But you are no meek or mousey wallflower,
You’re not the unassuming girl with glasses
Waiting for someone to rescue her from her bleak existence.

But you are the strongest person you know,
Hefting not only your baggage
But everyone else’s
Just to make their loads a little lighter.

You have the stuff of heroines within your soul
and yet you are merely the side-character that
Makes the real hero of the story shine brighter.

And there you stay,
A background pillar,
Someone who will always be there to pull out
And play with when their story needs you,
And easily discarded to collect dust when it doesn’t.

You’ll be there to take up space in a pew at their wedding,
Send them cards for birthdays and Christmas’s,
And be the friend who can be flexible to fit around their schedule.

You’ll laugh at their jokes,
Remember the stories,
And always be the one to
Start the conversations.

You won’t expect them to remember
What you do for a living,
What you do for fun,
Or what you do in general.

You’ll accept that after a decade of friendship
They don’t know more than the
Facebook version of your life.

You’ll tell yourself that
No one really cares about anyone anymore
In this shallow and superficial world,
But you’ll still put their name on your speed dial
And hope they’ll care enough if that call ever comes in.

You tell yourself one day it will be your turn.
Your turn to be the most important person in someone’s life.
You’ll be put first,
prioritized
And will have someone catering to
Your feelings,
Your needs,
And your desires.
Someone will want to take care of you
And make your life a little bit brighter.

They’ll take your hand,
And take a bit of the weight off,
And not allow the spotlight to be moved off the both of you.
One day your life will have supporting characters trying to make you the star.

But until then,
You keep mumbling your lines from the background
And stepping aside for someone else.