Shahma Ahmed

“My apologies to everything that I can't be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can't be each woman and each man.
I know I won't be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.”
― Wisława Szymborska, View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

“tiny: but there is the word, this word phil wrayson taught me once: weltschmerz. it's the depression you feel when the world as it is does not line up with the world as you think it should be. i live in a big goddamned weltzschermz ocean, you know? and so do you.”
― David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“two people who were once very close can
without blame
or grand betrayal
become strangers.
perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.”
― Warsan Shire

“we disappear.
It happens to me frequently. You disappear? Yes and then come back.
Moments of death I call them.”
― Anne Carson