when i was a little girl i didn’t have dreams
of living in a house with a white picket fence,
or marrying a prince who rescued me from
my abysmal reality; i didn’t want to depend
on someone to save me and i never really
liked the colour pink so when my mum painted
my room pink and purple with love hearts all
over the walls i spent my nights scratching at it
with half-bitten nails

as i grew older i asked my mum how you know
when you’re in love and she told me there was
no better way to describe it than: “you just know”
i’d painted my room black and white by this point
because i believed it was an accurate portrayal of
what was going on internally and i remember
getting my knees muddy as a kid and as i got
older and i’d met you, i remember thinking that
you were like the grazes on my knees except
more painful and the one thing i never asked
my mum was what it’s like to fall out of love or
get your heart broken

but i just knew

and it’s weird how as a kid i never wanted to
be saved but i believed you could save me and
now i’m drawing love hearts all over the walls
and scratching them on my skin at night and
i want a white picket fence surrounding a house
built for me and you and you rescued me from
my abysmal reality. you’re not a prince but you’re
the next closest thing and i’ve got grazes on my
knees again and they’re reminding me of you