This is Negla Abdullah at her best. Rounding off the year with a poem about the victims of popularism in a post truth world.

My fingers tightened,

My fist clenched tight,

My body ice cold,

My blood stopped running through my veins,

My organs shut down one by one ...

Leaving my heart...

Pumping

Pumping

Pumping

Pumping senseless words through my body

Idiotic ideologies pushed into my frontal lobe

Dangerous hate speech escaping my lips

But these were not my words

These were not my ideologies

That was not my speech

I became paralysed

A puppet to be played with

A brainless robot to join the oppressors

I am a victim to governments

I am a victim to the media

I am an enemy of humanity

Controlled by those who wanted power

Controlled by those who wanted to demonise the other

Controlled by those who wanted to own the world

I left the EU because I was told too

I turned my back on the atrocities taking place in the Muslim world because I was told too

I blamed everybody else because I was told too

Now, I write these words because I want too

Because my organs woke up

My blood started pumping

My fists unclenched

And my fingers loosened

At the cries of the innocent children piercing my ear lobes

At the sight of blood on my hands

At the feeling of fear and uncertainty that surrounds our future

At the taste of freedom slipping away

At the smell of a burning civilisation

I woke up to realise the nightmare was a living reality...

I decided I no longer wanted to be told

I wanted to be bold

And stand up and break out of the mould

It is time for the people to take control

Negla Abdalla is a spirited journalist, sharing her passion of tackling issues of a religious, political and societal nature through poetry.