If You Wish Me

If you wish me,

please don’t wish me a hopeless “Happy New Year.”

Don’t offer me words that float lightly over a life that is heavy with waiting.

Wish me something real.

Wish me a year with acknowledgment —

that my story is heard,

that my pain is not questioned,

that my existence is not treated as an inconvenience.

If you wish me,

wish me acceptance —

not tolerance wrapped in silence,

but genuine belonging,

where I am seen as human before I am labelled an asylum seeker.

Wish me safety —

the kind that lets me sleep without fear,

the kind that doesn’t depend on paperwork,

the kind every human being deserves simply by being alive.

If you wish me,

wish me protection —

from policies that delay lives,

from systems that exhaust hope,

from uncertainty that steals years while calling it “process.”

I am not asking for luxury.

I am not asking for charity.

I am asking for what I am crying for every day:

dignity, security, and the right to rebuild a life.

So if you truly wish me well this New Year,

don’t wish me empty hope.

Wish me justice.

Wish me humanity.

Wish me a future where I am no longer waiting to be allowed to live.

By Mr. Why