By Aiman Swaad Ahmad

---

I know not how poets do it

wrap such emotions in sonnets

or warmth with syllables.

If I could,

I’d write you down

not just your name

but how you feel

when the world leans a little too heavy.

You’re not fireworks,

you’re a quiet light

on a night I didn’t know I was scared of.

I walk through days full of noise,

and there you are

a stillness without silence

a safety without walls.

When you laugh

it’s not loud.

It doesn’t have to be.

It echoes in places inside me

I didn’t know were empty

until you filled them

without trying.

I’m not great with words

not the right ones, anyway.

But I think of you

when it rains and I don’t mind.

When the room is dark, and I feel calm.

When everything hurts a little less

because you live within me. 

I guess what I mean is 

if I have a place in this world

where I can just be

not fix, not fight

just breathe

it’s you.