Rising Tenderly 

Speech and stillness pierce me like arrows 

In sorrow and in harrow

I retreated into a quiet hollow

Numbness, like under anaesthesia 

A faded fog, akin to amnesia 

Destroyed like shattered pieces of glass 

Fragile heart, fractured past

May the pieces be put together with precision; 

A flood of countless incisions 

Rising, rising, rising 

Phoenix has arisen 

Fragile no longer, yet tender 

Held by the Strong, I will never surrender!

FARHANA PANDOR