El Mektoub

They say it was written

long before our first breath.

A story inked in silence,

Waiting for a witness.

We wander through life

thinking we choose,

but what is choice,

when every step we take

was already there,

a footprint set before us.

Still, we ache for answers,

yet life happens in ways

we can’t explain or undo.

How much can we do, after all,

when our capacity

is only human?

We punish ourselves

for loving too late,

giving up too soon,

not knowing better.

What breaks us is not what is written,

but what we think we should have done.

Now I finally understand,

we were never meant

to hold the world in our hands.

It is clear at last,

there is mercy in the script;

in simply being,

quietly walking the road

paved for us.

There is freedom in realizing:

the ink does not move,

only we do.

Hi guys, long time no see.

I just wanted to say a quick word about the title for those who aren’t familiar with Arabic.

Mektoub (مكتوب) roughly means “what’s been written”, often used to speak about fate or destiny.

I chose to write it as El Mektoub, not Al Maktoub because I’m Algerian and that’s how I say it.