Insignificant

I live in the shadows of lives that matter, Watching as they move through worlds where I don’t exist. I wonder if the absence of me would make a sound, Or if I would fade away, like I was never there at all. I am the daughter whose name is spoken softly, Like a half-finished sentence, Not the pride in their eyes. I’m just the shadow that moves around their light, The quiet sigh they let out when they remember I’m still here. I am the friend who listens, Who waits for the stories of others, But never has their own to tell. Not what they think of when the sky falls down, Not the voice they hear when they need to drown the noise, Not the one they look for in the crowd when their world turns quiet. I am not the first choice, not even the second, I am the leftover thought, the one they forget to pick. A placeholder in someone else's story, Forgotten in the margins, erased by time. I am nobody's first thought, Not the heartbeat that quickens, Not the light in someone's eyes. A backup, a fallback, a body to trust, When there’s nothing left, When all the best have left the stage. To be nobody’s important person is to be A ghost in a world of the living, A heart that beats in silence, A soul that waits, and waits, and waits. I am the one you remember When there's no one else to hold onto, The one who slips through your fingers, Unnoticed, unmissed. I am nobody's important person.