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26//lit major ishratmumtaz.substack.com

[ishratmumtaz]

Welcome to my safe space and bear with my immature poetry/words that i try to write

[wetheurban]

Bring back enjoying life without performing it. Not everything needs to be witnessed. Not everyone needs to know everything.

[ishratmumtaz]

what is the distance between the life you’re living and the life that you want is called?

[ishratmumtaz]

my new substack article is here, please check it out : https://open.substack.com/pub/ishratmumtaz/p/the-privilege-of-solitude?r=6sa6ao&utm_medium=ios

The Privilege of Solitude

Isolation is almost always painted in shades of sadness.

[ishratmumtaz]

heya my fellow writers, i am so happy with my small community i have who likes and views my writings. it truly means a lot ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

I recently also started writing some essays (actually only one right now haha). i would be honoured if you guys check it out.

thankyou so much, here’s the link : https://substack.com/@ishratmumtaz?r=6sa6ao&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile

Ishrat | Substack

literature graduate//26 What will this world do without books, love and cats?

[ishratmumtaz]

I haven’t cried in a year,

Not because the grief has left,

but because it has learned to live without spilling.

I try sometimes, to summon tears,

as one might knock on a door

long abandoned.

Nothing answers.

Since I exhausted them on you,

three years of relentless mourning,

of nights where my body wept

even when my mouth could not explain why,

The grief remains,

It has only changed its form.

It no longer moves outward.

It has dried into me.

[ishratmumtaz]

There is no “new year” for me,

only another page I turn with quiet hope.

Each January, I whisper the same prayer:

may this one be gentler than the last.

Life has humbled me enough times

that I no longer ask for miracles,

just a stretch of days soft enough

to breathe without bracing for impact,

a year that teaches no harsh lessons.

And maybe one day,

when the final dusk of December falls,

I’ll look back and finally say:

yes… this was the year that held me kindly.

[ishratmumtaz]

It's like every person I love turns golden,

Their life glows brighter after me.

And I watch, smiling, pretending it doesn't matter to me,

that they shine somewhere else with the light I once gave them.

[ishratmumtaz]

I've come to understand that human relationships are fragile little things. Like glass in trembling hands, beautiful but so easily broken. And so, I've learned not to rest my happiness in them, for even the warmest closeness can turn cold, and joy, if tied to others, can vanish without a sound.

[ishratmumtaz]

I don’t want to be

the object of a man’s desire.

something pretty to look at,

a body before a mind.

I’m not here for the gaze

that lingers too long

or the compliments that come

laced with control.

What I want

is the same power,

the same doors wide open,

the same chances to rise

without having to shrink myself

to fit inside their comfort.

Let them look

but let it be with respect,

not hunger.

Let them see my strength

before my skin,

my mind

before their fantasy.

I am not here

to be wanted.

I am here

to be equal.

[ishratmumtaz]

How burdensome it is to exist in this world. To wage an endless war for one’s own survival, to grasp at love, or to simple be. At times I wonder if I’ve strayed from the path meant for me. Or perhaps I never truly found it. What is my purpose here? To appease myself, to satisfy others, to earn the favour of god or to do all of these, yet still feel unfulfilled? Life has never been a gentle thing, and it never promises to be. The only solace, perhaps, lies in learning to cradle the suffering, to find a strange kind of peace in the storm.

[ishratmumtaz]

Why is it that the world looks upon me and sees only radiance, as if happiness were stitched into the fabric of my being?

Or perhaps I ought to take solace in the fact that the facade I so meticulously craft has become so seamless, so convincing, that not a soul discerns the fractured self concealed beneath.

[ishratmumtaz]

you tossed my love aside

as if it were nothingness.

i burn where you don’t.

[ishratmumtaz]

The world feels heavy and unkind

A hollow echo through my mind.

Where death is cheered and pain ignored,

And silence sharpens every sword.

Hatred blooms where love once lay,

Trust dissolves and drifts away.

Wounds run deep, yet eyes stay blind—

Some bleed loud, while some stay confined.

[raahisblog]

All this anger was once love—deep, raw, and true. But love ignored turns to pain, and pain, when unheard, roars as rage. Feelings don’t vanish—they transform.

[ishratmumtaz]

Each night, my dreams cradle the ache of longing

A wish to be near you,

where silence speaks your name.

I wait for the moment

when my eyes can shut the world out,

and your laughter lingers

like a ghost in the wind.

We run—hand in hand—through fields

that bloom only in my mind,

where time is kind

and the world forgets to end.

But somewhere deeper than sleep,

I know:

this joy, this closeness,

was never meant to be held—

not here, not now,

not in this life that slips so quickly through our fingers.

[ishratmumtaz]

What mattered to me was your love

Now that you took it away from me,

Everything else is just a blank canvas in front of my eyes

That I am not willing to paint, ever again.