POEM: Lost and Found

Lost and Found

Introduction

Trigger warning:
Although my poem below is a work of fiction, it is written for anyone who has ever felt unheard, unseen, or been a victim of bullying or harassment within a toxic culture setting.

Remember that the events and characters are fictitious, so please consider it an allegorical tale - a symbolic reflection of the emotional trials many endure in silence.

This poem is offered as solace, strength, and a reminder that sometimes being pushed out of the wrong place becomes the quiet beginning of finding the right one.

For all who are navigating pain, isolation, injustice, or the difficult courage of speaking up, may these words remind you that your integrity is never wasted - and that even in darkness, you can be both lost and found.

Lost and Found
by Adisha Kariyawasam
25 November 2025

During the great pandemic,
when the world felt fragile and far away,
Elara worked in a toxic culture
that mistook silence for weakness
and integrity for inconvenience.

Then one fateful day,
They summoned her 
to a windowless room,
a place untouched by empathy or light.

Like vultures, they circled her
with rehearsed and ruthless cadence,
not spoken from truth
but from fear of being seen.
And again and again they asked:
“Do you know what wrong you did?”
On bullying and corruption,
she had unknowingly lifted the lid.

She did not answer -
for she feared it would make matters worse.
Not through guilt,
but because she knew
some storms grow stronger
the more you speak -
the more it becomes a curse.

Inside her quiet mind,
another truth rose -
steady, calm, unwavering:
“But what about all the good I did?
I’ve unconditionally served
with all my heart.”

This was Elara’s truth,
quiet but unshakable.

But they chose not hear her.
Instead, they said to her in no uncertain terms
To 'Get out!' and 'Never return!'
But, a toxic culture cannot recognise
a seed of courage when it grows in stillness,
nor measure the cost
of speaking the truth
to ears that no longer listen.

So they pushed her out
and tried to cover it up,
believing they had silenced a problem.
Yet in doing so
they unwittingly created her freedom,
and a void in the organisation
that would never be filled again.

Elara stepped into a new team -
one that valued honesty over ego,
kindness over competition,
humanity over hierarchy.
A place where integrity
was not a threat
but a standard, a modus operandi.

And in that gentle space
she learned something profound:
that being forced out
was, in truth, being set free;
that her quiet nature
was not a flaw to be corrected
but a strength the world needed.

Elara was no longer bound to her past misfortune.
She was like a free bird now,
Like a dove of peace
transforming lives,
rising far beyond the reach
of the toxic vultures before her.
Those vultures circled their own shadows,
feeding on scraps
and the spoils of an unnecessary war.

And through meditation,
and compassion toward others,
Elara became more powerful
than anyone could have possibly imagined
lost by them,
found by herself,
and recognised by others 
who unconditionally cared,
So she could live at last
a meaningful life.

#HealingThroughPoetry 🕊️
#QuietCourage 🌙
#IntegrityMatters 🔍
#BraveryAndResilience 💪
#CompassionTransforms ❤️