Her Missing Soul Poem by Maya Reid

You’re looking into her beautiful eyes
Gazing into them
Getting lost like you always do
And you can tell that something’s not quite right
So you ask her what’s up
Remind her that she can come to you
When she needs a listening ear or a stabilizing shoulder
She tells you everything’s fine
Which instantly tells you that
At least something is wrong
You can see it in her stance
The way she walks
The way she holds herself
You can hear it in the sigh
Beneath everything she says
And in the silence that is
To your ears
Deafening
All the empty space
All the forgotten words
She can’t bring herself to say
She might as well be holding a neon sign
The way she’s screaming
“Help me! ”
But every time you try
She turns away
Turns into herself
Because she is everyone’s Superwoman
The bridge across every chasm but her own
And only her Superman can save her
And you can’t be her Superman
You can’t show that you care
You’re not allowed to love her
And it scares her that you do
Because, if she were to ask herself
She’d have to say she loves you, too
And that would be shattering every single rule
So she denies that there are feelings
Denies that she’s alive inside
Hides every internal tear with a laugh and a smile
And she doesn’t dare cry on the outside
That would show that she is weak
That she can’t handle it
Can’t shoulder her own boulder
Or so she was raised to believe
And you try to tell her that it’s okay to cry
In fact, it does good for the garden in your soul
The rain helps all the grass and flowers grow
But that goes against everything They said
So she can’t let herself believe your words
And when she finally can’t bear it all
And she’s ready to give up
She comes inches from ending it all
But then she thinks about
Everyone else that needs her
And depends on her
To hold their skies up
When they’re threatening to fall down
And pull their suns up
When it’s dark
Even if it’s only with a word or a smile
She thinks about everyone else that needs her
And that’s all that keeps her here
She won’t listen when you tell her
That the person who needs her most
Is herself
Sometimes it’s hard to believe
That we’re not much more than kids
Sometimes it’s not
Sometimes we think we’re crazy
Sometimes we are
Sometimes we need to be
But right now, all she needs to be
Is saved
She is
As we all are
Wounded
But she needs her wounds to be healed
Because hers are venomous
Lethal
And you love her so much
That you’ll do anything to save her
The problem is
She has hidden herself so well
She’s been protecting herself for so long
That there are times when she’s barely even
Alive
The trouble is
You have to find her first
You have to wake her up inside
So you call together an army
Form the world’s biggest search party
You do everything
To try and find her
But your captain calls off the search
And tells you that she’s standing right in front of you
You knew that
Except that she’s not there
That is her empty shell
Waiting for you to fill it
You have to coax her veiled soul out of hiding
The question is
How do you search
For her missing soul?