🪞 Identity & Reflection Poems

Welcome to my collection of identity and reflection poems. These verses emerged from moments when I found myself at the intersection of cultural expectations and personal truth. Here, I explore the weight of inherited patterns, the courage to question societal norms, and the journey toward authentic self-expression. Some poems confront uncomfortable truths about family dynamics and cultural expectations, while others examine what we inherit and what we choose to carry forward. Through these words, I invite you to reflect on your own journey of self-discovery and cultural navigation.

🪞Loss

People talk about loss.

Loss of a loved one. Loss of a pet. Loss of a job.

But what about other losses?

The loss of your good health in the moment you desperately needed it the most.

The loss of your dream of having your potential realized in your chosen career

The loss of the burning candle of love that is right in front of you but is taken away by the one who lit that flame in your heart in the first place

The loss of a person who understood you like no other but has changed completely to one you can’t recognize anymore

The loss of an amazing experience and exciting adventure you dreamed of having for over a year and worked so hard to make happen.

The loss of financial freedom erased in an instant which you sacrificed so much for a decade to have

The loss of hope that everything will turn out okay in the future and falling in despair

So what are you left with?

A physical form. Existing.

Nothingness.

📜 Last Days & Adaptation

Everywhere around them were sounds of people crying 

It almost seemed like war was taking place inside this one house 

Sobs spilling out like fresh blood  

Her wailing. Tortured silence in his eyes. 

No words spoken by anyone would ever comfort them. 

It was their decision. 

To start a better life. Hope for a better education.  

No matter the amount of greater good, their lives were to be torn apart and would never be the same again.

Adaptation

Changes. So many changes

They were like the seasonal floods that surrounded them every year back home

Changes that they had to get used to in order to survive.

💭The Weight of Memories

Sometimes we hold on to memories to last us a lifetime because those memories are the only thing keeping us alive

To continue breathing and existing for another day

Those memories feel like a lifeline not because they are perfect or our lives were perfect when they happened, but it was a time when we felt content and at peace, and that was the cause of the happiness

An underlying sense of fulfillment.

Not because everything was exactly how we wanted it but exactly how it should’ve been at that moment

We hold on to these memories because of that deep seated joy, we haven’t experienced in a long time

And

we aren’t sure if we’re ever going to feel that joy again to that extent in the future.

🏋️The Weight We Carry

I’m so sick and tired of hearing the phase: what defines us is the way we react to our struggles.

Fuck all of you.

When you have been trampled down and beaten up, you want to lie there and not do anything

So stop judging people who give up or who didn’t want to go on

For committing suicide, not because you encourage suicide, but you know nothing about what happened in their lives or what they felt.

For shaming anybody that falls into depression and can’t climb out

Be comfortable with how uncomfortable all of it feels, and the fact that you can’t change it.

For some people there is one defining moment or event that strikes them and it’s not because they don’t want to come out of the tragedy or be in a different or better place.

Sometimes an event or experience happens to somebody and it’s like the knife or bullet that struck them, and it was over for them even if they are still alive physically.

But sometimes you put a knife through somebody and they survived, miraculously, for whatever reason that nobody can explain.

It could be a bullet. A medical injury or catastrophe of some kind.

Then there are some people who die, and who don’t survive.

Maybe the memories that someone carries of their pain becomes too much for them to carry anymore.

You don’t know what something or someone means to somebody.

🧳Vagabond

We don’t have the luxury to call someone for help or bail us out.

Nobody in our family revised our resume or sent us reminder emails to attend social gatherings while we were at college if we were shy.

We didn’t have the luxury to call our parents up and cry when something upset us while we were in college or if we failed a class or got a bad grade.

We are our parents retirement plans.

We had to be the translator, interpreter, and household manager since we were young and still as adults.

We’ve had to deal with emotional blackmail and toxic family our whole lives where our boundaries are violated every hour in every possible way.

We don’t have the benefit of generational wealth.

We have to support our families financially regardless of if we are in a high or low paying profession.

Nobody in our families are leaving us extra money that we can use to get out of any debt.

When my grandma died, she left some money for me and my sisters. I used that to pay off my credit card debt. Said none of us ever.

Some of us don’t want to get married because we saw how women were treated like shit at the expense of upholding culture that benefitted men continuously.

Some of us want to be take care instead of being the caregiver always.

Some of us are only starting to attend therapy as adults and figuring out how to deal with our own mental health issues.

We’ve been so busy taking care of and thinking about everyone else in our families, we are now starting to learn how to take care of ourselves as adults.

We’ve spent our entire lives taking care of our families physically, emotionally, financially in some capacity or another.

We’ve spent every minute and every second trying to improve the quality of our families lives.

We’ve sacrificed so much for the sake of our family’s convenience, happiness, comfort at our own expenses.

Some of us don’t want to spend our adult lives taking care of our families in addition to have to take care of our children and the possible expectation of our spouses’ families.

 👁️”This country and its lack of morals!”

Is it morally right to tell your daughters to simply stay away from the creepy uncle who can’t seem to stop staring at her and all the other young girls?

The man staring at your daughter and the other young girls as if he is picturing them all naked while licking his lips.

Whom all the other mothers in your community have told their daughters to always keep a distance from and move in the opposite direction if they see him?

What are you teaching your daughter?

What message are you sending her?

That she is responsible for a man’s behavior?

That she is in control of a man’s behavior?

That her psychological and physical safety isn’t valued? Not important?

It is acceptable for his gaze to continuously make her skin crawl?

That she and other young women are expected to modify their behavior to accommodate his behavior?

At the expense of their discomfort?

That she doesn’t deserve to feel safe among men from within her own community around her father’s age group?

Men who probably maybe has a daughter of his own?

Maybe your community, culture, & values are lacking morals.

Epilogue 

This uncle is still staring at you. His wife died of cancer several years ago. His daughter is heading off to college.
He gifted your whole family expensive designer perfume at your family dinner party.
In a crowded & noisy room at a table filled with only men, he is always the first person to notice you trying to get your father’s attention.
You’re 31 years old and this creepy uncle is still staring at you.

✊The Rights You Didn’t Fight For

To all the people that don’t care about social justice & other people’s rights being restricted & taken away that has caused devastating negative impact upon their life, I look forward to seeing you at your “giving up my rights” ceremony.

Labor Rights:

• Your 8-hour workday? People died for that
• Your weekend? Union workers fought for that
• Your lunch break? Activists demanded that
• Your paid vacation? Someone advocated for that

Women’s Economic Rights:

• Opening a bank account without a male relative’s permission? Women fought for that
• Getting a credit card in your own name? Thank the feminist movement
• Owning property independently? Women before you made that possible
• Having your own passport? Previous generations demanded that

Voting Rights:

• Universal suffrage wasn’t gifted – it was fought for
• Poll taxes were eliminated through activism
• Voter registration drives cost lives
• Protection against discrimination at polling places came through struggle

What’s that? You don’t want to give them up?

But you didn’t fight for them

You didn’t march for them

You didn’t protest for them

You didn’t risk anything for them

You are simply the beneficiary of other people’s:

Blood

Sweat

Tears

Sacrifices

Advocacy

🛡️Not Your Morality to Decide

I’ve had to fight for every small thing. For every right I have and for everything in my life.
So, when a bunch of people decide that my life is worthless and have no problem shaming me and other women that we should keep our legs closed if we don’t want to be pregnant, you bet your fucking ass I will be speaking out.

Because I am NOT fucking okay with giving them the power to decide if or when my life has meaning.

Some of us do want to be pregnant and have children. Just not at the expense of giving up our lives because people with zero medical knowledge or experience decides their version of morality comes first before my fucking life and decides to use the law against me and those trying to save my life.

No, I’m not okay with my partner being a single parent. No, I’m not okay with my partner telling my existing children that their mother died because a bunch of people with zero medical knowledge or experiences created an environment that found it acceptable to not provide me with a life saving procedure.

For the sake of an invisible deity, they believe in or for whatever other reason. Creating and enforcing laws that kill women according to your religious beliefs isn’t religious freedom.

Every time a woman dies due to not receiving lifesaving procedure during pregnancy, you are destroying families and communities. You have blood on your hands. So, fuck off with your goddamn morality.

I will be fighting back and against anybody that tries to restrict and take away my rights.

 

🧪Mad Scientist

What are you clinging to by upholding tradition? Sameness?

How does that benefit the people in the future? Like your children and grandchildren and those of others? Where does the future fit into the sameness?

You’re afraid of losing the power and influence you once held over your children that you may not necessarily have over them as an adult.

You are afraid of not benefiting from the status quo anymore, which you’ve held since your children came into your life.

Your feelings are valid. Your feelings matter. Your acceptance and blessings are important.

But do your beliefs, feelings, and attitude have to lead your children to sacrifice their happiness in various forms and manners for the rest of their life?

But do your beliefs, feelings, and attitude have to guilt and shame your children into silent torture while making decisions and choices they may regret for the rest of their lives?

But do your beliefs, feelings, and attitude have to inspire unquestionable devotion of your children for all the sacrifices you made on their behalf when they were young?

Sacrifices you made willingly and would happily make any time again for them.

Can there not be a middle ground? Balance? Moderation?

Is pride above all? Is communal shame above discussing compromise?

But I want the best for them. But I care for them unlike any other.

But they are my everything. But I wish them happiness.

But I love them like nobody else will.

Under your conditions.

🔥Child Sacrifice

Have you heard of child sacrifice?

Yeah, you mean like some ancient people did to appease divine figures and deities.

No, I mean the modern kind.

Oh you, mean the ones committed by those small communities in rural areas or individuals that retain superstitious beliefs and practice in witchcraft in developing countries?

I mean the ones happening in educated well-traveled middle and upper-class families living in urban settings in both developed and developing countries.

When did they start sacrificing their children?

Haven’t heard any news reports about that. That’s a pretty big thing nowadays.

It’s invisible and silent.

Nothing anybody wants to report on.

A face of life to be accepted.

A fact of life to be endured for many.

Children are being sacrificed at the alter of conformity, upholding status quo, and stoking old divisions.