Hard

 By: Sister Fiddha

Nobody told me it would be hard

Nobody said its impossible

Nobody told us
That the heroes lived lives of isolation
Nobody said Salman was reviled
Nobody said Malik had things thrown at him
Nobody showed us Abu Tharr’s scars
When the Meccans beat him to a pulp
Nobody lifted up Zainab’s veil
Over her heart
To show us how much you bleed
To keep this religion in your heart
Nobody explained
How hot the weather was when they
Travelled to Kufa
Or how dry their mouths were from thirst
Nobody can tell us whether the blood dripping
From their wounds when they were whipped
Were even felt by them in view of the killing of Hussain
Nobody told me
As I was growing up
That dreams to be like those heroes
Would fail
Nobody sat me down and explained
That they were more than humans
They overcame
Pride, vanity and conceit
Self admiration and defeat
They were a cut above the rest
They overcame what to us is THE test
They sang a song from the sheets of heaven
An angels hymn and we just muster on
If we could meet these heroes
What would they think of us
If we could see these heroes
What would they say to us
Would they tell us of how it hurt
To be exiled to Rabah
To watch your daughter and your wife
Starve in a forsaken dessert
How can we touch their legacy
Or how can we weave our lives
Into their beautiful story
Nobody told me it would be hard

Nobody said its impossible