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"Me the Monster, the Victim, Me?" by Shaheer Daniyal

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January 15th, 2026

Me the Monster, the Victim, Me?

by Shaheer Daniyal

I try not to fall, but when I do,  
it costs me fragments of my soul.  

Your hands dig deeper,  
only faints of me remain now.  
My family should come get my corpse,  
Instead they celebrate the burial,  
a funeral they never attended.  

Every time I try to forget you, forgive me – 
for ever letting you stay.  
I didn't know a shadow could dismantle all my hope.  
A single thorn can bleed me dry  
while I'm reaching for the rose.  

Corrupt you may be, vile your nature – 
you are still mine.  
Won't you light the walls where my blood has smeared,  
so I might recognize who I was?  
Won't you let me grow my wings?  
Why must you drag me down,  
throw me from the heights I built?  

Perhaps to forget you I must erase myself – 
kill the reflection,  
and the mirror that makes it.  
Washing my face over and over won't help –  
I must drown in it.  

I could cut these veins, pour out the blood,
searching for the thing that makes it boil,
strangle the victim, to strangle the disease.  
But do I really deserve  
to die for your sins?  
Me the monster, the victim, me?  

Dear me, have mercy.  

About the Poet
Shaheer Daniyal resides in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.
Read the poet's biography and Young Poets World publications on Shaheer Daniyal's Artist Page.

Young Poets Collection
This poem is also featured in Young Poets Collection #1, published in the Young Poets World Library.

Keywords: trauma, identity, resilience, responsibility

Previously published in Young Poets Magazine:
Drawing a Landscape
by Dimana Velcheva

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