The Fortress of Self
With strangers, I’m patient and gentle. With family, I’m irritated by their slowness and frustrated by their forgetfulness.…
ARCHIVE
Author: hayder
The Ghost of Who I Was
I miss the version of myself who could write poetry without self-consciousness. The twenty-two-year-old who wrote fearless poetry…
The Kindness Gradient
With strangers, I’m patient and gentle. With family, I’m irritated by their slowness and frustrated by their forgetfulness.…
The Circle Complete
Arash came to me crying about a nightmare, and I said what eleven-year-old me needed to hear. This…
The Double Standard of Time
Watching aging heroes miss easy catches and forget familiar lines, we feel time’s democracy. Their greatness was human…
When Gods Grow Old
Watching aging heroes miss easy catches and forget familiar lines, we feel time’s democracy. Their greatness was human…
The Wisdom Paradox
The Cruel Timing of Wisdom: Understanding Too Late. The tragedy is timing—we acquire understanding precisely when our time…
The Stranger I Live In
The Loneliness of Aging: Living in a Body That Betrays. This is the loneliness of physical change—watching your…
The Romantics of Retrospect
This is how nostalgia works—it's a powerful editor, keeping the golden light while discarding the shadows. What if…
The Speed of Loss
Maybe that’s the lesson: love the person in front of you today, not the person you remember from…