By Najma Salad

Frame

Through the stillness of the night,

I hear the motion of your heart.

Skipping beats between breaths

But all of it feels right.

You feel free among crowded thoughts, 

As if you were a kite hanging mid-air.

You’re constantly going with the flow.

Unbothered by time, though 

You forget how much you owe.

With newly fed fear you undergo.

Darkness after darkness from what you dug below

The monsters waiting for you, so go  

but I must warn myself from the Monstrous foe 

She’s the ones you feel lurking about

Brainwashing words into your skull, she leaves you in doubt. 

You’re not enough she screams

Messing up with your self esteem 

as if it’s not real, as it seems

because of your dreams

Who are too shatter to be redeemed 

You let her tell you who to be

like a frame trapping a picture,

With four sharp corners too hurtful to turn from 

And an empty middel hollow you become  

The frames put up as a wall to them

So the monster makes you numb 

And just like that you’re framed to be a monster

---

Still life

We were children playing in the grass

Flipping cartwheels

we were children shooting for the stars

making constellations of our dreams against the night sky

But when dawn broke through the dark

and stars started shooting down

when the fire began burning our dreams

we had no choice but to leave

For now we become children whose

Hands filled with scars and heart full of lies

We watched the world change but we stayed the same

we were grown adults with children thoughts

hoping for things to get better

we have vague memories of home

and fogged dreams of peace

when our homes were destroyed

we stood still with life 

Like fossil left after extinction 

we were frozen in time 

The outside world seemed to care now 

Which was bittersweet like a rhyme 

Its hard to except help when life stood still all this time

For the world we were normal, like them 

But to ourselves we were mirages, cloning a lie 

Like a slow burning fossil, we let out our oils

As our traumas filled the air like gases, our new hopes paved the way

We are thankful is all we could say 

---

¨I miss you¨ he said 

I miss you. 

The pain nagging my heart, I dont want to listen

I am addicted to your love,

It makes me want to express everything about me as a part of you 

It makes your very presences a need for me 

Its as if you’re the sun to my solar system and I depend on you

But now that addiction kills me, 

it’s like Missing something that was keeping me alive, 

the essence of my being. 

I miss you, 

You’re love is a magnet to me I can’t seem to be away from you, 

I miss you. 

I cherished your love like a old family heirloom

Keeping away all the bad thoughts,

 I protected the feeling from all the bad in this world,

 and now I need that feeling to protect me.
I miss the dopamine I felt from your love

I miss you.

---

Night sky 

I sneaked a glance while he roamed my mind

Creeping around like a star near the full moon

With darkness stretching from his hair

The light shone through his face

He was the moon and his eyes were stars 

I was amongs the shooting star in his precense 

only once in while, Longing for a spark

I caught his glance

Glimmers danced on my skin

Where do I begin

From the beating of my heart

To the batting of his lashes

Then to hes hands covering his chest

Wondering when the butterflies would scatter

He floated in my heart a little longer

---

I remember now

Why they called me names

Labeling me like a product

Boxing me away to be stored

I remember why they made me feel

Like mini-sized pieces of letters

Too quiet to be heard

I didn’t want to remember the days

They stood waiting to see me fail

Those days felt like cold winds

Pushing me back against the floor

But it wasn’t until now I remembered the courage

I held to get me here

With my full-sized hands

Which carried me through

No more words were whispered

---

I remember The smile on your face, 

The everlasting joy of happiness

your eyes as bright as the street lights in the dark night

I remember 

the carefree expression

You’re tender words that coated my heart from the cold embrace of unrequited love 

Or your sentiment love for all things kindness 

which you expressed to everyone

Especially me

 watching from a far I admired your ever so perfect personality.

Which I Chose to remember

Because it cursed me of depression 

and chased off my aggression 

Uplifting those around you,

As kids looked up to you,

I was like them.

I remember.