You Loved Us Too Much

The Last Word Was Love: A Farewell in Forty Million Voices

There were those who never knew your voice,
who turned away from your fatherly tone,
who called you stubborn, called you old,
who laughed at warnings of the storm—
and now they press their ears to every door,
restless, hungry,
aching for one more word from you.

There were those who walked another road,
who stood, for a season, in the enemy’s ranks,
who let the well grow deep around them—
and you, even in leaving,
threw them a rope of light.

You left,
and forty million became one ocean,
no longer grasping for their share of dust,
but selfless, burning,
searching for the hand that struck you down,
settling the score with grief made iron.

You left,
and those who competed for the world
forgot the world existed.
You lifted them past material things
into a country with no name
but sacrifice.

And I keep asking—how?
How does one death remake a nation?
How does one chest, offered as a shield,
wash clean a thousand misunderstandings?
And the answer comes, the only answer:
You loved us too much.

Every breath you drew was for our stepping
one inch closer to the truth.
The world, with all its narrow walls,
kept blocking the way—
so you asked God to let your very going
be the final sermon,
the last and greatest lifting.

You said, I’ll walk to the front line.
I’ll make my chest the shield.
You said, I’ll take Zahra’s small hand in mine,
so even the blindest soul
might catch her light and see.

You always told us,
I love each one of you. I pray for all of you.
And we smiled, and we nodded,
and we did not believe—
because our own love is so small
we cannot even whisper a name in prayer
unless we’re asked.

But you meant it.
You meant it with your blood.
You meant it with your last breath
and the breath before
and every breath between.

You left, and we were changed.
You left, and we woke.
You left, and in the red language of your leaving,
you said the only word that mattered:

I love you.

And we stood in the wreckage of your love,
ashamed,
awakened,
finally, finally yours.