Why am I never Noticed

Why am I never Noticed

I joined like everyone did,

paid my fee, filled the form,

stepped into the circle

where stories bloom

and voices rise like steam.

I wrote from the gut,

entered challenge after challenge,

lines sharpened with care,

pages soaked in hours,

just to watch

the same regular names

stand tall each week,

like fixtures on a shelf

never dusted, never moved.

Once, they crowned a haiku,

a slip of verse I barely thought they’d see,

and I clung to that moment

like a thread of sky.

But since then – silence,

though the hearts roll in

and kind strangers say

this should be Top Story,

this should be seen.

Still, the stars fall elsewhere,

and I wonder if my shine

just isn’t their kind.

I do not write for pity,

I write to grow, we all do.

Just to be read, to be heard,

not always to win.

Just sometimes,

Yes, sometimes,

I want to feel good enough.

like I belong among the ones

who get the praise,

who wear the glow,

whose words are Gold.

not a shadow.

My time here thins

like daylight in December,

do I go,do I stay

I want to be seen,

not as a name on the edge,

but as a writer Like everyone else

whose light was always there,

just waiting

to be noticed.

However each month I waited in vain.

Note personal piece about being a writer in the background. I’ve entered so many challenges and rarely see my name rise. Ok a few top stories but never the good stuff. I never seem to quite make it. So maybe I am not that good. And need to move on.