‘Aligned by Soha’, age 15

She drowns in unspoken words,

the air laden with a speech misheard.

He utters a message,

unknowingly a wreckage,

not of one’s heart,

but of one’s mind,

know that you’re not a person aligned,

with the hassle they grapple with every day,

be it a home, a workplace, or a classroom to play.

Speak it not to fleetingly say,

to convince, to persuade, to astutely sway,

you impede the process of the gladdening delay,

of a grin too bright and a nod too brief,

with your faultless but detached belief,

that a pristine beauty amounts to a withering leaf.