THE LOST SOUL

The dejected soul is trapped in the cage of my skeleton,

I am unaware of the fact, how to set it free?

Sometimes it seems that our very own existence cost us a lot,

The great burden on my shoulder

Shatters me every day into minuscule fragments,

I haven’t smiled for so long the way I used to,

My jovial soul is lost somewhere.

I want to run as far as I can,

Beyond the galaxies,

Or deep beneath the core of the earth,

I wish I could become air and get dissolved in it,

Or maybe a water droplet that just flows,

I am inclined to become the night sky, calm and composed,

My heart is enclosed in a hard coat,

The first radiant of the sun can not find its way into,

Standing on the verge of desolation,

The optimist in me wants to abandon hope,

The great legend in me can no longer stand the torments of thorns,

Because they are making it bleed every second.

When I was penning down all the woe from the ink of my very own blood,

Someone whispered in my ear from above,

With every hardship there is ease, 

Undoubtedly with every hardship, there is ease,

Your Lord has not forsaken you nor has He become hateful of you,

And verily your Lord will give you so much that you will be pleased,

Because I am Al-Rehman, the Most Compassionate.

My eyes filled with tears,

Those words were enough for my consolation,

Not a single query in my heart was left to ask,

I know, I know a day will come,

When I’ll stand in the sunshine,

Brave as a warrior,

Staunch as a mountain,

On that day the hard coat of my heart will break into flinders,

The sunlight will fall upon it,

And a new flower of hope, bliss, and triumph will bloom from it,

From where I fall, I’ll rise beyond it,

On that day I’ll unchain the dejected soul and will set it free,

And will find my jovial soul,

The lost Soul.

About the writer

Iraj Shariq is raised in Pakistan. She is currently doing bachelors in dental surgery from Karachi Medical and Dental College. She also finds fulfillment in calligraphy and poetry writing. 

Her works have been published or are forthcoming in International Literature and Arts Magazines, Rasa Literary Review, Mahanam e Sehar, Dovely Isi, V.shine, and others. She is also a Quran teacher, content writer and is an active member of many welfare and literary organizations.