In an effort to love ourselves, all baggage must be unclaimed...

In an effort to love ourselves
All baggage must be unclaimed
Even those that are marked “fragile”
Maybe especially those
In efforts to relive moments
It is the most difficult to choose essentials
Between baby pictures and first love memoriams
Each painstakingly glued
From a past of shattered glass
And as we are cut time and again
The answer becomes easier
For lighter or better
Then pressed for changes
We choose to break free
From the weight of the rock
And the immovable force of the hard place
There is air here, we realize
And gravity has seemed to forget us
In the stratosphere
Words need not be spoken
And actions have no weight
For mass sinks
And we are floating
Above coincidence
And circumstance
And accidents
And the glass-strewn patterned walkways
That used to zig-zag our existence •

Let go of what binds you. Grief, regret, guilt. We all make mistakes; some worse than others. We all have things we wish we could change about our past... however, you cannot hold on to this. I have found that in order for me to move on, I have to ensure that I have fully learned from my mistakes and have prepared myself to avoid committing them in the future. Your future can be better for you than your past - if you learn from it. •

From Four Years in Chrysalis
© Aisha Tariqa Abdul Haqq Publishing
Follow @AishaTariqa for more daily poetry •