FOR MAHEEN

There are some things

I never learned how to say

without making them sound smaller than they felt.

So I put them here instead.

Not because I expect anything from you.

Not because I want to change what has already happened.

Not because I was brave. I want you to look back

and feel something you no longer feel.

I just wanted, for once,

to let the words come somewhere

without asking it to become anything.

I remember the good days.

I remember the stupid jokes,

the random songs,

the little things you probably forgot

but somehow stayed with me.

To love someone is to see them

for who they are beneath everything else.

Not only for who they were.

Not for the mistakes they made.

Not for the version of themselves

they show the world.

But for the soul underneath it all.

The beauty. The sadness. The light they sometimes

forget they carry.

Real love doesn’t only look at the surface.

It notices the things left unsaid.

It sees through the walls people build

when they’re trying to protect themselves.

It stays gentle through the chaos.

It doesn’t pretend the scars aren’t there.

It simply understands that scars

are also part of the story.