Love from A to Z

I just wanted the right mix of being with someone I connected to, who cared, but also let me be.

“I’m just glad to be home.”

“Dad, can I be Muslim too? Now?”

“Because I want to have peace too. Like you.”

maybe we’re meant to be alone,

She’s zen. He’s zen. I’m not.

who didn’t look at me weird for the way I dressed, for how Muslim I looked,

I wanted to be surrounded by warmth.

First for her, for her soul to be freer than it had ever been on earth, and then for me. Please, God, don’t let the hatred through which others see the world distort my own sense of justice.

“I’m sick of running into this so much. I’m the one heartsick, okay? Me and my sisters, my people.”

She pursed her lips, so I ended with my last offer for her brain’s expansion. “And you know what? I’m not going to let your prejudice, your outrage, or fake kindness, either, change one bit of me, of how I look, of who I am. Your resistance to my existence is futile, okay?”