For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
-T.S. Eliot
By Mashaal Farid
You talk about loneliness
and write about what it tastes like
In a shed with few shadows
That stares with eyes that won’t see
They hug with hands that can’t hold
You ask to be left in peace;
a peace no noise could cease
But the emptiness wouldn’t go away,
The shallowness lasts
And the heartbreak stays.
By Nazish Sabir
Arid land,
Silent waves,
mysterious terrain,
Stones and rocks,
Lost in chaos,
Strangled by inconclusive thoughts,
A bleak spot,
yet a desired place to live at.
By Amna Ameer
I will not show my grief
To the ones who come
For a feast
Feeding on my vulnerabilities
Trying their best
To taste how it feels
To be broken
To let your tears dry
After hours of bawling
Days of bargaining
Nights to trying to make sense
Of what is going on
In this world
And afterlife
I will not distribute my sadness
Like tickets to a show
Ones where others will cheer
Every time I fall
And stumble
And break
Here’s to raising a glass
At the blood monsters
And soul mongers
Trying to sell our bodies
In the market of prostitution
Where the greatest bid
Is for the one
Most grief stricken
And then they savour it
In a grand feast
Like an exhibition
Of most power
The ability to look down
And pity the one with loss
While what you have
Is in abundance
It is easy
To spread charity
When you don’t have to worry
About staying alive
When a part of you
Is not rotting
In the ground
And autumn isn’t peering
At you from the corner
Of Nature’s eyes
And you know your demise is here
But it will only occur
When a funeral is led
With your corpse
One that is laden with desires
Put to rest once and for all
Clothed in a grief
They tried their best
To define you by
I will not
Put on a show of despair
For an audience
That already has put bets
On whether I’ll survive
Or cave in
To the pressure of death
All I know is
After years of struggling
Is that I will only share
My grief
With the ones
Who deserve it.
Compiled by SK
