To the little girl who just wanted to be loved,
It was never your fault. All you wanted to do was make connections. You were so small, with your baby teeth not even loose. You tried so hard, not understanding why you were different. Not understanding what was different. Every word, action, and expression was calculated. Not realizing you were making yourself out to be strange, not knowing why people already thought you were strange. A light was shone, directing you out of the darkness. How were you supposed to know that the light was not from the sun but rather a man made blinding spotlight. Forcing you onto a stage with a cage ready for you. You took the hand that helped you into it, you watched as they closed it for you. Not once did you think to run because the hand squeezed yours, it hurt, but you mistook it for companionship. Comfortably in that cage you embraced the eyes that watched you. You danced to their music with so much love and trust in your heart. Little girl who just wanted to be loved, you could not have known they wanted to hurt you. You did not know the other children who were around did not want to be your friend. How were you supposed to know the adults you were meant to trust did not want to be your friend either. When they grabbed and picked the feathers off of your wings you accepted that pain, you were just happy someone seemed to like them. As your baby teeth fell and new ones grew in, as your hair grew, and your facial features changed slowly the eyes drifted away and you were left in that cage. Oh little girl who just wanted to be loved, you are not so little anymore and yet still can not seem to leave what had never been locked. Around you were so many different people in cages, all different from each other. You reached for them but never dared to step outside. You tried to pull them into your cage, you hurt them. You never meant to, you did not mean to hold on so tightly when they wanted to let go. You did mean to drop them when they decided to try to pull you out. Well little girl who just wanted to be loved, you are not so little anymore and you found someone in a similar cage as you. Not the same, never the same. An arm extends from the nearby cage and it does not try to pull you out. Instead it holds your hand tenderly, so much softer than the hand that led you. You sit at the edge of your cage and they do the same. Holding eachothers hands, helping the other slowly scooch their own way out. It’s hard sometimes and it hurts. Little girl who just wanted to be loved, you are loved more than you know. One day you will fly out of your cage even with all your wounds on your wings and when you do you will see all the people who were waiting for you.