Awaiting Execution

In honor of a man who taught me to forgive, let go and let God

Ghandi once said “An eye for an eye and the world is blind”,

Each day I'd wake up and hope the world would realize,

that this man that I've known since I was 9 years old,

is human and not dehumanized.

He took a life. A life that wasn't his to take,

it's an understatement to call it a mistake,

but in a world where temptation, lust and intoxication,

are acceptable, normalized and advertised,

not only my generation but the one's before me,

were led astray in just a blink of an eye.

In that fateful night of 1995,

this man who I have grown to love,

took a beautiful, young woman's life.

With a cocktail made of jealous rage, alcohol and crack cocaine,

he showed her no mercy, showed no restraint.

So who am I to love this man like an older brother?

I'm not that woman's mother who's got to live with this pain,

I'm not this man's family who has to live with the shame,

I'm not the murderer who is solely to blame.

But I'm also not the most gracious, the most merciful.

This man has been alive barely longer than he's been locked up and waiting to die.

I love this man because his heart is purer than mine,

I love this man because he is still crippled with remorse after all this time,

I love this man because his love runs deeper than the rest of mankind's,

I love this man because instead seeking tranquility he seeks humility,

I love this man because he found the strength to fight his demons,

I love this man because Religion made him a free man.

Most people don't understand my view on the death penalty,

having lost my own blood to murder recently,

as a Believer I value and honor repentance and sincerity,

as a medical student life's sanctity,

call my view controversial and senseless,

my choice to love this man naive and brainless,

in comparison I am just a nonentity,

and only God can judge me.

Arwa Abdulkadir Mohamud Yusuf 

December 2012