This is one of the hardest poems I’ve ever had to write. I wrote this 3 years ago per request and I am re-sharing. I just received a message from a woman who has three children and lost her husband who’s in his 30s last year and I cried my eyes out. If your loved ones are beside you, love them. Apologize for any stupid arguments you had and just love them.

Time and time, I go back.
To the memory of a person who loved me without holding back.

As a child, before a castle of greatness I always stood.
To see the king who never left me feeling misunderstood.

He would put his crown down and leave his throne.
He would run to me and make me feel like the world was my own.

With the world in his eyes,
He looked at me like he was seeing an angel from the skies.

He would listen to every story I had,
No matter how happy it was or how sad.

One day I came to the kingdom.
I knocked and knocked.
I waited and waited.

With tears in my eyes, my heart was gasping to rest.
Who would have thought what would happen next?

The door opened and there stood the queen.
The look on her face was not one with which she was ever seen.

“He’s gone,” she said.
She put her hand under my chin to raise my head.

My tears would be black if my heart could speak.
Never in my life did I feel so weak.

The king of my heart was gone.
My father left me. How could I ever move on?

It’s been years but I am still heart-broken.
How could a heart heal from the loss of its own medicine?

I pray every night for the strength to accept that my happiness must be without you.
I pray every night that with pride in your heart I left you.

I can feel your love wiping the tears from my cheeks.
For every night my pen writes on withered paper and your contentment with me it seeks.

Through my thoughts and through my words, I reunite with you.
I will be strong because I know that being weak would hurt you.

I love you.
Father, I love you.

– Najwa