i am not a curated list of
the top songs,
the best songs,
critically-acclaimed songs,
picked with so much care
too much care
the others cease to matter
i am the songs
known and niched
borne out of an artist's dream
i exist so they could dance
in the kitchen at 3 am
i might not expand the world
in which i live
but i will persist
in careless dancers
dancers like me
the dancers after us

there is power in being a girl
but there's also sadness
                            struggle
                    ­        anger
                            uncertainty
and most of the time it's hard to find strength in being a girl
except in knowing that the sisterhood is rising,
we're coming,
a force to be reckoned with
and nothing to stop us

there is power in being a girl
and there is also inevitability

There are faces that go on the pretty, high-end magazines,
In demand, highly sought
Read once
Then kept away
Then there are faces that go on the canvasses of painters who were once unknown
Coveted, evoking
Imprinted on the mind
Hanged in the Louvre
(for all the world to see)
Now worth a million

We talk with certainty like
the sun rising every morning
And we look to the stars
to guide us
and to match us
We trust the beings we know nothing about
But we lock our doors at night
And it's okay;
It's a habit to leave during sunset
I don't wonder anymore
Just listen to what Orion has to say

It’s okay
For a while it was sunny and glorious
And it was a happy summer day
And all we did was frolic and travel
And find ourselves in every place of our souls we share
And we both knew summer ends
But we were too hung up on warmth to mind

We knew fall was coming
And we both uttered it to ourselves
One eye each losing a tear to the sun
But we continued to ignore the falling leaves
And the brown shade of trees and went places
Until there was no more to go to
And we kept on going to the same places
Tired, fed up, unmotivated

I took my coat from your house
Apologized
And left
And winter came and it froze me over
And my coat never saved me
And I wanted your arms but your arms shooed me away
Your arms got tired of warming yourself
But you found a way to survive

*Months later in a bench we met again
You took my hands
Apologized
And stayed
And I’m sorry for ever causing summer to end
We could have made summer last
Sorry I took my coat and dashed

Months ago, she left.

That was the girl who reassured me, time and time again, that she would always choose me.

She moved away,
found another,
and today, she chose him.

Does the universe play favorites
I know it is happy to have me
It is happy for my brother
And for its every single creation
But my god, its smile
When it looks at you
Scientists will never truly know
Why the stars burn
Why galaxies form
Why the universe expands
But I do
And it does
And it was never sorry