Writer’s Block

it’s been one year

365 days

8760 hours

since i wrote my last poem

i would sit for hours

staring at a blank screen

that would never answer me

no matter how many times i

scream.

write a line

delete.

i don’t know why 

i couldn’t put my mind

into words

that could make people cry.

i want to create art

i want the words i write

to be like the imprisoned

paintings of 

the louvre 

where women 

with powdered noses

and husbands

who would escape

to the city nights

and hide until dawn

could scrutinize

every stroke

with their guilt-ridden eyes.

i couldn’t

i want to

i can’t.

(writesomethingwritesomethingwritesomethingwriteanything)

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Imaan Sultan is a 16-year-old American Pakistani living in Dhahran. Follow her on Instagram for more of her work.