DO YOU WANT TO HEAR MY WORDS?
MY THOUGHTS?
MY SECRETS?


DO YOU WANT TO FEEL MY EMOTIONS?
MY FEARS?
MY JOYS AND TRIALS?

DO YOU WANT TO SEE MY WORLD?
MY HORRORS
HOPES
AND HEARTBREAK?

DO YOU HAVE THE BRAVERY
TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE SOUL BEHIND THE CURTAIN
THE PERSON BEHIND THE SMILE?

PROMISE ME YOU’LL NEVER LEAVE
NEVER JUDGE
LAUGH
OR SCOFF.

FOLLOW ME.
I’LL SHOW YOU

WHAT I’M HIDING.

I traded my tiara for a graduation cap
and walked alone down the aisle.
I left my Barbie dolls for diet pills and Prozac
the day I almost died.

My street where my home sits,
my abandoned kingdom,
has been invaded by drugs, and all the fairy lights
are flashing red and blue.

The day I left, I packed my innocence,
and the hindsight grew gray and black.
Once I had the strength to leave,
I knew there was no going back.

Meeting you was shaking hands
Unlocking a door got the first time
Laughing with you was remembering a fluent language
I had long since forgotten.

You saw my mess, my wreck
Listened to my story.
Every single chapter.
And you found a way to translate my codes.

The more I try to hide
To shut myself away,
The more you seem to already know.

I didn't know how lost I was,
How far from myself I'd veered,
Until you silently reminded me where I stand.

You adopted me
and gave me my first unconditional family.
Being your friend is like coming home.

Someday
I’ll stop waiting for your name
To appear on my phone
My mind
And my heart

Someday
I’ll be able to think
Without you popping up
And tearing me down

Someday
I’ll get over you
But that day
Is not today

POSSIBLE TRIGGERS: Self harm

I looked down and saw a scar
Of where I used to be.
A long, steady coursing line
Down my arm.
My scar invited me down it’s course,
Down its bright red river.
My curiosity begs me to go back.

I am weak from days of crying,
Nights without sleep,
And no strength on which to lean.
It would be so easy to press back down
And reopen what I closed.
I just have to keep trying,
Have to keep fighting.

I am a proud supporter of messy hair and sweatpants
With unidentified stains.
I am a supporter of unkept beards and bags under eyes
From stressful, sleepless nights.
I believe in “Just one more coffee” and “I’ll get it done later.”
In “I love you too.”
In chosen family.

How we live is who we are. I believe in
Embracing that.
I support shameless self-love
And unabashed assurance.
Life is messy,
And so are we.

I am a woman. Descendant of

Queens and

Goddesses.

I am the warrior who kept fighting

And the one who waged the war.

I am fire, water, air,

and earth.

I calm the storms

and start the fires.

I am generations of keeping this race from dying out

And no thanks for it.

I was not made to be silent

Or to turn a blind eye.

I was born to fight, to rule,

To change what I see.

I am a woman.

Do not mess with me.