All I Ever Wanted To Be Was Someone Like Her Poem by Samah Khan

All I ever wanted to be was someone like her
And so I burnt my dreams on a foggy day
Left the ashes behind without a backward glance-
Quickened my pace when the villagers came
Asking what had happened, who had plundered my home?
Just like my mama asked “Why did you change your mind?
Why did you not become a missionary of the pen
Like you always promised yourself you would? ”
How could I say I left it all behind to be like someone else?
To follow a path that wasn’t mind and thus
Could not have led me to my rightful destination?
In all this, I forgot one pivotal point of reasoning –
The spoils of her victory were hers alone,
And I may have had a share by bond of blood, but the glory,
The glory could not be shared, could not be passed on to me –
Glory and honor are not inheritable.
All I wanted to be was she
And all she ever wanted me to be was me.