By When I left him, when I finally left that life,
That was when I stopped wearing my watch,
My rings,
My diamonds.
I’d taken nothing,
I’d left it all behind.
I felt bare without it all
Until I realised they’d been shackles.
Someday, I might still wear a watch.
Rings.
Diamonds.
But I’ll never let them wear me again.
—
Laaleen Sukhera is a writer and communications consultant from Pakistan and has worked in television in New York and Britain. She has authored an anthology, Austenistan, published by Bloomsbury, and spoken at TEDx.
Laaleen is a graduate of Clark University and has appeared at literary festivals, podcasts and television programs in Bangalore, Belo Horizonte, Dubai, Dublin, Galle, Islamabad, Lahore, London, New York, Sharjah, Sydney, and Washington, D.C.
She’s been quoted by The Atlantic, CNN, The Huffington Post and appeared on the BBC, British Council Arts, the Daily Mail, The Financial Times, Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, Sky Arts, The Times, and Vanity Fair, as well as in an FPA-nominated editorial feature in The Economist’s 1843.
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