I was
unexceptional,

in chronic pain
from the blistering
inattention

of those 
I admired
and longed
to befriend,

until one day
I passed beyond caring
for such things, 
laid down
and slept 
still alone and
unattended;

woke to find

I’d become 
a gem, uncut
by other hands
yet faceted nonetheless
by

the process
of loneliness
curing into

solitude,

and thus transformed
became

sought after,

what I had once longed for
and what I no longer

desired
to be.