I.
If a boy teases you,
he is a ****.
Stand up for yourself.

II.
It is entirely acceptable
to wear brown with black
and silver with gold.

III.**
If it is three a.m.
and you still don't understand the quadratic formula,
go to bed.

IV.
When you get your heart broken
(and you definitely will),
ask yourself if they are worth crying over.

V.
By all means,
whenever there is rain,
go outside.

VI.
You are not a girl,
you are a person.
Behave as such.

VII.
Dress however you want.
Dye your hair unnatural colors.
Wear men's clothing.

VIII.
Have seconds.
Eat dessert.
Eat second dessert.

IX.
Love until it hurts,
and then ask yourself
if it is still worth it.

X.
Always be truthful,
gentle,
and fearless.

Arms tight,
grabbing fistfuls of t-shirt,
your mascara wet on his shoulder.
This is the hug you give
when something is falling apart.

This is the hug you give your ex boyfriend
when you promise you will still be there for him,
this is the hug you give him
when he wishes to stop existing,
this is the hug you give him
when you tell him you love him,
this is the hug you give him
when he doesn't believe you,

these embraces will break your heart,
they will make your ribs curl in on themselves,
they are apologies for the harm you have caused,
they are guilt for the scars you have left,
they are acknowledging that
terrible things happen to beautiful people,
they are the realization that
you are not a beautiful person,
you are a terrible thing.

Nothing has ever broken my heart more
than feeling yours beating
*and knowing you wanted it to stop.

I use to believe that when you picked a flower,
It would always be there.
Always be beautiful, the definition of perfection.

But now I see that we were never meant to pick flowers.
We were instead meant to stay in the garden.

Because one day the Gardener,
The one who planted us flowers.
Will plant you right next to me,
And water us well.
He'll teach us how to grow,
And always show us light.
He'll teach us what's wrong from right.

But dear heart, it can get lonely.
The time sometimes isn't right now.
Sometimes it takes patience and watering from the well.

But oh dear flower, you'll bloom.
So don't you shed a tear.
Just trust in the gracias Gardener,
He is so very near.
And when the time is right,
He'll grant you a certain wish.
When you've bloomed and you've flourished,
He'll plant a seed right next to you.
And the two of you will grow together.

Oh dear heart, how you two will bloom.

Dear bed,
Thank you
for always being there for me
Like a dog for his master

I can always count on you
To be there for me
at the end of the long day

Your soft sheets and blankets
Like clouds in the sky
Ready for me when the day is done

Your frame
Sturdy as a skyscraper
Supports me off the ground

Whenever I don't see you
I can't function
With the lack of sleep

I know it must be boring
sitting in my room all day, waiting
But you are always there happy to see me

At the end of the day
I jump onto your mattress
And float away into heaven

Thank you bed
For always being there
Ready to embrace me at any time

See, I love him so much
That I can’t write about him,
And this is the closest I’ve ever come
To a love poem in the past year:
We make the cosmos jealous of our light,
And the most beautiful thing I can write down is his name.

they say opposites attract,
but then,
how are we in contact?
we met in the same hiding place, with walls up to our embrace.
same empty wells on our faces
same invisible threads on our lips
slouched posture
boney hips.
i was a blank canvas of a girl and you were a boy who liked to spill your ink on ****** white pages.
i was painfully boring and you were the ruins after a hurricane.
you had stars for eyes and flames that licked your lips like you were the only wildfire out there and i was nothing but a crack on a sidewalk.
you had every natural disaster dancing on your fingertips and i was dying for you  to touch me.
but your palms only sweat when you daydreamed about kissing me and i was infatuated with your dreamy eyes
you  kept galaxies in your palms just to give me a sense of home every time we held hands.
silly boy hasnt anybody told you death doesnt have a home.
hand in hand we are filthy image to them they try to **** us
but you spill anything about us to anyone that would read
according to you there wasn't any us, ink all over paper yet never any love
they asked you if you ever loved someone you said you never really cared
seems like i was the air you breathed in but coughed out as dust instead.

Exaggeration is a writer’s best friend,
aside from a paper and pen.

If it’s a only a small river,
we see a massive sea
and when they turn around,
we watch them leave.
There is one cloud
but we see the whole sky,
they say hellos and
we only hear that one goodbye.

Exaggeration is a writer’s best friend,
we don't notice beginnings, we write of the end.

You can fall in love
with the way
someone pours milk
into their cereal,
listening to the things they speak about
when they sleep talk
at three in the morning,
and by watching them untangle
earphones, which somehow
seems to be their biggest challenge
of the day.

You can fall in love
examining the face they make
when they try to hold back laughter,
if they put their head or their arms
through a sweater first,
and the way they shiver
when it is 23 degrees outside
and they are only wearing
a leather jacket
while drowning in a
thick red scarf.

You can fall in love.
You can fall in love.
You can fall in love.

And you will fall in love
with all of that.

Ways to say I love you without actually trying or displaying emotion:
listening to me when I talk
saying hi when I walk up
valuing my presence
not groaning when I begin speaking
not telling me my presence is an inconvenience
wanting to spend time with me
not ******* about me while I'm within earshot
smile at things I say
don't complain when I talk too loud
actually talk to me occasionally
make eye contact or smile in the halls
appreciate me

see? it's not that hard. if other people can do it,
you can.
I don't need constant hugs or verbal affirmation
I don't need you to compliment me, even.
Just show that you care-
the simplest way to do that is to actually care.
and if you can't do that,
then you aren't ready to be in any kind of friendship with me
because I, like most people, only enjoy
being in relationships with people
who actually want them there.
If you don't want to be up to this 'tremendous' challenge
and you don't believe you can fundamentally change yourself
and if you don't want to,
then consider the friendship over.
Because it would be nice if I could accept you for exactly who you are
but exactly who you are is kind of an *******
and if you can't see that
then there's something wrong
and if you can see it and don't want to change it
then there's something wrong.
I'd like to love you unconditionally
but I can't be the only one doing the loving
while you aren't even paying attention to me.
It's unhealthy.
Compromise, communication, appreciation-
things you don't seem to care that much about
AKA the fundamental cores of a good relationship
and if your basic personality isn't conducive to a good relationship
we are going to have a problem, especially
if you aren't willing to solve the problem.