This piece is an ode to myself – a self-critical sort of self-love. In a year of whirlwind emotions and finding myself experiencing growing pains I had never expected, I found that I was willingly tearing myself apart critically, every single day. So, I wrote this to remind myself that I can be both, beautiful and haunting, at the same time. And neither of them is exclusively good nor bad.  

Beautiful and Haunting 

You are beautiful,  

In the way despair  

caresses mirages in an endless desert, 

In the way sunshine peeks  

behind thick clouds during monsoon rains, 

In the way rivers scar the earths surface  

each morning.  

 

You are haunting.  

In the way an echo touches the curve  

between a laugh, 

In the way the moonlight reaches far enough  

to warm untouched skin, 

In the way darkness swallows hope. 

 

You are beautiful and haunting,  

In the way glass wind chimes in kaleidoscope hurricanes  

shatter sound barriers in black holes, 

In the way mossy fog wisps over mountainous sorrow, 

In the way fresh fruit  

falls bruised from its home.  

 

You are beautiful. 

You are haunting.  

By  

Sana Shoukat