Pain.

• Sarah Hafeez, Grade 8, Australian Islamic College of Sydney
• Poetry
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'Unleashed 2022' competition

Let the heat sink in, while I party in pain.
Patterns in my delicate scars.
Feel it in my sunburnt heart.
Watered-down, feeble, and chained.
I settled for what I was used to.
Pain.

No one warned me about this agony.
The heartbreak we experience with friends and family.
It’s like cancer, slow and cloaked, but deadly.
You can’t find it in a song or book.
No ballad or chapter can ever justify this form of torture.

In the end I tell myself to keep my heart open so pain can find an exit.
I tell myself that when your embarrassing memories fade,
And your voice is unleashed at last,
You’ll know that your much more than what you’ve done in the past.