Life Goals

☐Eat up the advice I dish out

To strange men in gas stations, grocery aisles and elevators

actually, it would 

hurt me to smile 

it would kill that little beast 

Integrity 

when grimaces are freely given

they have lost their application 

if I smile at you

I would be barring my teeth

inviting you to admire

my perfectly sharpened fangs

pricking tongue

pungent breath 

you

have done nothing deserving of warmth 

by declaring my face cold

for women who are "difficult" to love

you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.  --Warsan Shire

September sickness

Sick of the chill. This is not the pretentious, let-me-roll-my-eyes-at-the-mention-of-pumpkin-spice-and-sweater-weather sickness. This is full-on "I'm ready for May" sickness. Let me plant a garden and dodge April showers, let's open wide the windows and clean with the most zeal I'll have all year. The thermometer hasn't dropped much below 60 yet and already I feel the dread of Raynaud's and winter weight.

white teeth

“It seems to me,' said Magid finally, as the moon became clearer than the sun, 'that you have tried to love a man as if he were an island and you were shipwrecked and you could mark the land with an X. It seems to me it is too late in the day for all that.'
Then he gave her a kiss on the forehead that felt like a baptism and she wept like a baby.”

More hyperbole than I'd normally subscribe to, but these lines have stuck with me and I keep wondering if I know what Smith means. 

I'm not the silly romantic you think. I don't want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don't want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want... a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved. -- Shana Abe

I wasn't even that nice. What are we doing to each other?