Halcyon

you said you had everything

You said you had everything —
when I first saw you,
you were all sharpness and glittering,
eyes wide with the certainty you'd already won;
the hallway bent toward your laughter,
and I was just another shade in your shine, undone.
You laughed at my notes,
said I lived too much in the margins,
that wisdom was for people
with nothing else to shine about;
"What's the difference between us?" you asked,
sitting on the same bench,
saying you were here with banknotes
while I was here with grades,
"Brains don't trend," you declared,
"and grades can't buy glamour,
wisdom's for those who can't afford the parade."

You said you had everything —
the gold, the crowd,
the kind of laughter that makes echoes jealous and loud.
Every mirror, you said, loved you back,
and even silence knew to clap for you;
your phone was full of faces
that spelt out your name like a queue.
You called my calm stupid and strange,
swore that men would rather be
with a dumb blonde
than an intelligent queen;
you said you could buy anything
with an empty check,
there was nothing you'd never seen.
You looked at me like knowledge
was a currency only weak people begged for;
your glances so selective,
they made wisdom feel like a curse.
When friends, memories, and glitter
became the threshold for success,
you laughed — "look at you, loser,
having nothing but wisdom;
would the crowd cheer for glamour,
or your so-called dumb intelligence?"

You said you had everything —
friends for every mood,
numbers on speed dial, laughter on loop;
you walked through crowds like a favourite song,
never missing a beat,
never needing a hand that wasn't already clapping along.
"Wisdom," you said,
"can't afford what glamour already has."
You told me I'd never fit the cool group,
filtered photos, café visits,
and made sure I was never on the list;
you posted stories only for me,
just to spite me,
praised me to your mother,
then mocked me in front of others;
you hid cruelty beneath sarcasm,
turned sudden plans into exclusion,
making isolation look like art.

Then came the final project —
your phone rang empty;
the same crowd that cheered your jokes
forgot you even existed.
Blank checks and glittering 'gram,
couldn't help when you needed it most;
and then you called me, again and again,
the number you never saved
in your "cool" chat group.
You mistook my kindness for weakness,
but it's this weakness that saves you now.

I don't have to say anything —
because I have everything;
you found the wrong trigger,
fired the wrong heart somehow.
Gold friends melt in fire
the tests didn't care who you were;
wisdom can't be borrowed like clothes,
no matter how large the check.
You mocked my mind for fun,
now it's the hand that feeds you;
you played the wrong game
you wore gold, but I held ground
while you posed for pictures
that couldn't rewrite your end.

Whose brain bailed out your brilliance?
Whose answers turned your failure around?
Who rewrote your ending
while you posed for pictures,
pretending your shine was profound?
You said mercy costs nothing
yet none but me could afford it;
you mocked the mind
that now grades your fate,
mistook my tolerance for frailty
but who saves you now?

You had the world.
but, I have the wisdom.
I don't have to say anything
because I have everything.