They see you.
When you’re awake,
When you’re typing,
When even you’re saying i love you and don’t mean it.
They listen to you.
When you’re talking to your friends,
When you’re just gossiping with your colleagues,
When even you’re just talking to yourself.
They know me.
I do not look up for this travel destination
But I want to go there some day
I remember writing it down in my diary
I remember telling it to my mother
But I never tell my phone.
I bet as I am writing this,
Even when I am making these mistakes,
Erasing, deleting, re-writing,
They could guess what I am going to write.
But I have free will.
I will write what I want to write.
I will tell them what I want to write.
I will have my own will.
I will not let them dictate me.
I will not let you them rot my brain.
Making all the decisions for me.
I know me.
I have my identity.
And that’s what I will keep with me.
Haslina Hassan is a poet based in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Her work explores memory, faith, and the quiet shifts between childhood and adulthood, often grounded in personal experience and social reflection. She writes on themes of empathy, resilience, and collective humanity, with several poems published in collaborative and independent works.