You fight the demons of the mind, the demons of the flesh

Daily, every morning, you wake up in a nightmare… burning, jagged, screaming, hellish thoughts

Daily, every morning, you take a deep breath, gulp in air

You douse the flames with the sweet spring water of your tears, you smooth the sharp edges of boulders with emery boards, your thudding heart drowns out the cacophony of fear

You ask the earth to go back into the path it orbited last night, you ask the world for some peace and quiet, just a tiny bit from its stores, do they still exist?

Every day, this is how it is, everyday, the nightmares seem more real than my comforter, my sheets, which I want to engulf me and hide and be nevermore

By the time the afternoon comes, the wraiths, the ghosts, the demons have evaporated

I am allowed half a normal day, by the time night time arrives, I am fully back to myself again, no fears, no horrors, just me, smiling and laughing

I look back at the day and wonder what was all that? But it happens again the next morning

They call it anxiety. Why every morning? How to explain this to anyone?

Some days I am lucky, oh so lucky, and the battalion of doom doesn’t turn up at my door

Those are the days I live for, aaaah the normal days, just the days without fear, doubt, misgivings, just peaceful days, quiet days, just days

Bravery? Yes, I have more strength than I ever thought I possessed. Unfair, yes, but who has time for the measuring, the weighing, the quantifying whose life is fair and whose is not

So just call me Samina the Brave and we can move on