3 poems

Ayyub Shamin

Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary School

if I could read your mind

How would I know,
If only I could read your mind,
If only I can get to your thoughts,
I can settle my feelings inside,
But I’m afraid,
What if all I am is,
A stone in a pile of rocks,
And not a crater from space,
Or a voice among the crowd,
And not the voice that’s on stage,
Or a pigeon in a flock of pigeons,
And not a dove that’s on shore.
Yet my heart can’t take a break,
Certainty it can’t find.
How would I know,
If only I could read your mind.

to die/to live

Maybe when people say,
‘I wanna die’
They mean,
‘I want something to live for’
‘Give me reassurance as to why I should be alive right now.’
‘Give me a reason,
Give me hope,
And show me the will,
The spark that keeps you going’

as i continue to drown

It’s all turned gray again,
Blank, like a transparent canvas,
I can’t see ahead,
Blank, like keys of a broken piano,
I can’t hear it anymore,
Like a soul, drowning in the depths of an abyss,
His mind and heart, tangled in conflict.

AYYUB SHAMIN is a senior from Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary in Canada. His poetry explores longing, interiority, and emotional collapse. His work has appeared in Aorta Literary Magazine. He is completing two poetry manuscripts and shares daily fragments from his work-in-progress on Instagram.