Victim

Even gone,
she claims all the attention.
All the gossip is of her.
The rumor-mongers
talk of no one else;
in all the classrooms
there are whispers
of her name -
a susurrus of sound.
And I, second and forgotten,
am overshadowed by her,
though I live
and she does not.
I am left behind;
I could not run after her,
not this one last time -
I am too weak to follow,
or perhaps, too strong.