Two poems by Abdul Hadi Haleemah

 

Broken

 

Shall I tell you of a monster,

that haunts the mind at the silence of joy?

Shall I tell you of a beast —depression,

that enslaves one at will,

till one morphs into a lonely path of silence,

negativity and other things made in hell?!

 

Yesterday, a girl learnt to spell depression

and then lost the battle with her world.

Today, she claims we've all forgotten her;

her pretty smiles & how she called our names.

She withdrew her wings and fell, plummet like a fallen soldier at the battlefield.

 

When depression creeps in like a thief on a moonless night,

It robs one of peace with fruitless struggles,

It burns the soul; chars away hopes

and cage it in its turmoil,

until they drown in its fear & become helplessly helpless.

 

Depression is only a disguise of constant lies that taint the light in the soul,

burdens the mind, drains the heart,

leaving you in grief, till you bend and break like an overwhelmed bench.

 

But depression is a weak candle (extinguishable at a mere mouth blow)

that burns only when you allow it,

Why not dip it in the pond of ecstasy and let it become an empty shell,

with scars to deal with like a cloud

hovering over a sky on a rainy day while you rise above its storm like an eagle.

 

 

*

 Plights of Solitude

 

A lake becomes a home,

where we harvest thrifts of fire

in a realm where hearts are liable to crack

when heated with the heat of hope.

This process is a reminder of allies

learning how to dive into the soil, 

in a quest for external lives.

 

But solitude be not thy medicine —

It's like a piano pulsating a sad music,

which sinks to the bottom of the heart,

waving away the hopefulness of the mind

enjoying the freedom of introspection and contemplation.

 

Cocooned by solitariness,

Feeling-broken-alive and reminiscing,

through the narrow aisle of pain;

thoughts arising and fading in it,

that time alone could heal,

while feeling not a pang of guilt.

 

Laugh boisterously even in shadows,

for no man can help you die.

____

Abdul Hadi Haleemah is a creative writer and a lover of art. She writes on diverse themes and her work has appeared in different journals and on blogs. She can be reached on Instagram @abdulhadihaleemah

 Original Illustration by Kehinde Badiru