Sometimes Poem by Basma Daher

sometimes I ask
who I might've been
if I didn't spend my childhood
patching wounds I didn't cause.

if I didn't become strong
because no one else knew how to be soft.
if I didn't become quiet
because loud rooms weren't safe.

but maybe
just maybe
this version of me,
the one that walks gently,
feels deeply,
loves quietly
isn't a shadow of who I was supposed to be.
she's the light I made from the dark.