Minha Hossain

There are a thousand ways to die,
and not all of them require a grave.

Some die in the arms of someone
who promised they would never leave.
Some die waiting for an apology
from a mouth that has forgotten their name.

Some die at seventeen,
but keep breathing until seventy.
Some bury themselves in work,
in love, in rooms full of people
who never notice they are gone.

There is a death in being forgotten,
and another in being remembered
only for who you used to be.

There is a death in loving too much,
in being loved too little,
in watching the world continue
as though your absence
would change nothing at all.

And then there is death itself,
the quietest of them all.

It makes no promises.
It asks for no forgiveness.
It does not pretend to love you
only to teach you what abandonment means.

Yet life, cruel as it can be,
has one mercy death cannot offer:

The chance that tomorrow
will not resemble yesterday.

And perhaps the cruelest thing of all
is that we must keep living
long enough to find out.

Hate me
Call me the bad guy,
The villain you curse when you cry.
Drag me through dust, through mud, through shame,
Crucify me first when you need someone to blame.

But where were you
When I drowned in the quiet?
When the tide pulled me under, And every hand slipped away,
Like promises lost to the break of day?

You used me up,
Fuel for your fire,
Left me running on empty,
Then broke me when I tired.
Now you sit high,
Pointing spears, casting blame.

You call me cold, cruel, bitter-
But did you ever wonder
What it took to make me this way?
Did you ever trace the cracks in me
Back to the hands that made them?
Or are you too comfortable
With the weight of your judgment
To bear the weight of my truth?

Its easy now, isn't it,
To label me, cast me aside,
Call me heartless, call me lost.
But every piece of me you scorn
Was forged from battles you never saw.

I didn't wake up angry--I grew into it.
I didn't choose this armor--it's forged from scars.
And if I'm the monster you see,
Maybe it's time to ask yourself
Who locked me in this cage to start with.