Slow death

By Urwah Mushtaq

I talk to my shadows and they talk back to me,

Every morning I pack my bags and decide to leave,

But they want me to stay,

Without me, they will go astray.

I guide them to sin

And I drag them into this hell.

Everything is so tragically beautiful in here,

There’s no peace.

We all are cursed, dancing with our twisted fates.

I will dig my grave with my own red hands that killed my freedom.

I will die here silently because I am too tired of my loud screams that never made out of this wicked place.

I have made myself a home in the darkness,

I let my guard down

Because there is nothing to fight against here.

I will never abandon this abyss,

I don’t feel like an outsider here.

Fragility

By Ali Asghar Ghani

Delicate castles of happiness

Engulfed by hurricanes of grief

Sandy citadels of dreams

Surrounded by floods of reality

Wings of freedom

Imprisoned behind bars of society

Twist in the tales

With undying unhappy endings

Sensitive, asocial creatures

Breathing, but dead inside

A Light exists in Spring

By Emily Dickinson

A Light exists in Spring

Not present on the Year

At any other period -

When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad

On Solitary Fields

That Science cannot overtake

But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,

It shows the furthest Tree

Upon the furthest Slope you know

It almost speaks to you.

Undivided Love

By Alina Mughal

I do not belong

I am the song

You dance and hum to

But no one ever knows the name

You never knew the words

You never learned

But you felt alive, right?

If you feel the same

Let me know

So, I can feel a little less hollow

Moments of serendipity

In our collective misery

If you don’t see it my way

That’s okay

I won’t love you less

I am not that careless

Not anymore at least

Even the moon remains content

At a distance,

I am fine with the light

You send my direction

Just don’t stray too far away.

Compiled by SK