Your lips lift like dawn,
soft and warm,
but I see the night
lingering in your eyes.

You laugh-
a sound the world believes,
but your heart
is whispering something else.

There's a tremble
just beneath the light,
a secret ache
that never learned to speak.

You carry your sorrow
like a folded note in your pocket,
creases worn
from opening it alone.

And still,
you shine.
Not because you're unbroken-
but because you are.