Reclaim Your Heart

POETRY

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A L
ETTER TO
 Y
OU
It’s hard to explain the freedom. It’s so deep and so real.
Looking through the confusion, the empty boxes and
hollow images, I saw you—Dunya. You place veil after
veil over my eyes. Trying to win me, deceive me, enslave
me to your lies.
When the truth is you couldn’t give me even a drop of
water when I stood at your door begging. I was on my
knees before you, desperate for you to fill me.
What I see now is a glimpse of clarity that only the stab of
perpetual disappointment could carve. And I sit here
surrounded by your henchmen, your army of liars sent to
keep me in chains. But I won’t be your prisoner anymore. I
will no longer be that little girl lying awake at night
thinking of you. I am no longer that heartbroken child
wasting her tears on you. My unrequited love can no
longer break me. You won’t break me. I won’t bend to
your glitter and false promises. I am no longer that faithful
subject standing before your false throne. My tears are no
longer yours to have. And my heart is no longer your
sanctuary.
You can’t live here anymore.
I’ve traveled a long way to come here. Sometimes there
were deserts where all I needed was a single drop of
water that you couldn’t give. Sometimes storms, where all

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I needed was a flicker of light to guide my path. And I
asked you again and again for what you could not give.
For all you have is pomp, boasting and chattel of
deception. And so I found myself again and again in
deserts without water, in darkness without light. But I am
no longer your slave, for there was a man who came to
liberate me from this. A man who came to liberate me
from this slavery to the slave, and bring me to the slavery
of the Lord of the slave.

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