#emotionalrestraint
__Mr, Mr__ —
I heard you said you’re a bad kisser,
maybe cause your lips never learned
what love you're supposed to go after.
You freeze mid-moment like you’re scared
she’ll see the ghosts you keep behind
your awkward laugher
__Mr, Mr__ —
She could have bought you a Ford
just for you to focus— keep pushing
forward, but my mind kept on stalling,
I think she changed her hair once —
soft brown to the color of her healing —
but **** I never noticed.
__Mr, Mr__ —
She said she was waiting for me to kiss
her first, but **** I never noticed.
It’s my fault — I was raised to be cautious,
I was taught love was something you approach
like a stray dog, slow and quiet, hand out first,
hoping it doesn’t chew out your emotions.
__Mr, Mr__ —
No I’m not her Mr — just the man
who never moved, never noticed,
and never said stay. Just her bad kisser.
Oct 27, 2025
Oct 27, 2025 at 2:50 AM UTC
We said we’d never stop believing
in fairies,
in kindness,
in return phone calls.
We swore we’d never
become like them.
The adults
with milky eyes
and calendars
and knives
they only use for mail.
You said we’d grow up
but stay soft.
Like peaches.
Like lullabies.
You pulled your own tooth out
in second grade
just to see if the blood felt like something.
It didn’t.
But you didn’t say that out loud.
I held your hand
and told you it meant
you were brave.
You said the tooth fairy would bring you
everything you circled
in The American Girl Catalog.
You got two dollars
and a cavity.
Welcome to Earth.
I still have some of my baby teeth
rattling around in a film canister,
in the same box as my First Communion Dress
and my Princess Diana Beanie Baby.
I thought I was just saving pieces.
I never knew which parts of girlhood
were meant to be disposable.
As if saving them
meant I hadn’t lost
the rest.
Apr 24, 2025
Apr 24, 2025 at 9:58 AM UTC