The story never changes
It just ends
Unsatisfactorily
No healing transformation resolution
The same issues
Playing out in repetitive motion
Like a loop on a hip hop track
Incessantly imposing on and interfering with my life
I wonder
If I see it
As an inherent part of the song
Despite not having chosen it
If I stop resisting or opposing it
Can I turn it into art
and can that art in turn
Become the healing transformation resolution
That I seek

©2019 by Loolwa Khazzoom. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be copied without author’s permission.

You mistake my generosity
As meaning that I have a lot of money
When it just means
I have integrity
And so I dig down deep
Borrow from others
Do whatever it takes
So that I never take advantage
Of your kindness
Or position in the social hierarchy
And I do it all quietly and with grace
You respond
Not with gratitude or friendship
But with demands for more
Attempting to extend me
Beyond the place beyond my capacity
To the point of breaking
Ironically
Taking advantage of me
As I look out for you

©2019 by Loolwa Khazzoom. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be copied without author’s permission.

When you think of my face
Do not remember it as full of Life
And bubbly
For my countenance fell
When you betrayed me
Abruptly withdrawing your love
And withholding your arms
Leaving me to suffer through this storm
Alone with the intensity
Of death surrounding me
No communication
No explanation
Of why you left me
Or even the decency
To inform me of the change
You were just suddenly gone

©2019 by Loolwa Khazzoom. All rights reserved. No portion of this article may be copied without author’s permission.