Sometimes,
Even a Star
is Outshined.
Who decides what she can and cannot decide?
Can you fill these forms, Miss? The doctor will be with you to formally discuss your options.
What is the difference between “what’s right” and “what’s correct”?
When will she make friends with her choice?
Could a doctor ethically doctor a prescription to fulfil a belly-held belief?
Did you believe that her decision wasn’t Vaseline-slide easy?
Is the world aware of her pain while acting nonchalant?
Do you hear her silent sorrow?
How about her guilty grief?
Does she need to be left alone?
Where are the promised lorries loaded with pallets of support?
Had it occurred to you that her tensility can’t be measured in units?
Are there any shops which sell genuine, non-counterfeit hope?
If she sobs at random again, will my shoulders be ready to attract her salty fluid?
Shall I work harder to be a dory she swims with, smiling, all hunky?
Am I already regretting not doing enough?
Has this ever happened to you?
Will you keep your opinion about her womb to yourself?
Have we become numb to nuance?
Would a rainforest match her fierce fire?
Should a beast consider plastic surgery for its unborn child?
O. Sami
1. When are we meant to tell the world we’re not feeling okay?
2. What lies do we tell ourselves every night?
3. Where do we store pain?
4. Did we really expect it’d be different this time?
5. Does it matter that others don’t feel our anguish?
6. Do we have a person to pin the blame on this time?
7. Who is our Go-To during lockdown?
8. Can our happiness vanish that quickly?
9. Shall we dance in our dreams?
10. Will the news be better tomorrow?
11. Is reason a word exiled during lockdown season?
12. Are we troubled only when we’re in trouble?
13. Am I why I feel no high?
14. How can we stop the mirror from telling the truth?
15. If lockdown ended, will we be truly grateful?
16. Has hurt run its course yet?
17. Have or have may or have not?
18. Had we not made more mistakes, would tonight have been more peaceful?
19. Could more people please give their professional medical opinion?
20. Should a beast wait till the end of lockdown to consult with a plastic surgeon?
21. Would it be unreasonable to scream right now?
Dad,
Eight years
Since pleading with the paramedics
In our hotel room
In freezing Mashhad
To bring you back to life
To wake you up
But no surgical knife
Could chase your smiling soul
💔
I can hear you: ‘Son, dont bawl
Your eyes. I’m resting, perfect.’
I look up
To the windless skies
You’re smiling, still. 🖤
Osamah Sami أسامه سامي 