The Truth I Found Poem by Vanessa Alvarez

They told me stories I learned to believe,
Of bamboo groves and parents who leave.
That I was picked from silence and shade,
Not born of blood, but somehow made.

So I carried that tale like a second skin,
A reason why I was never let in.
Why love felt distant, why warmth felt rare,
Why I was treated like I wasn't there.

But truth has a way of finding its voice,
Of rising up, of making its choice.
And one quiet day, the veil was torn—
I was of their blood, truly born.

Still, the truth didn't set me free,
It only deepened the ache in me.
For even with proof, they couldn't see
The soul they'd kept in absentee.

They called me kin, but not with grace,
Their eyes still searched for someone else's face.
And though I belonged by blood and name,
I felt like a guest in their family frame.