Astrid Engen

“Mother, I am ravenous. Mother it is not what they said, they did not tell us the truth, they did not even say that it would look like the underbelly of a skinned mammal. That it would be like the inside of a lip. It is the scrape of his teeth on the soft of my arm and how I moaned for days. It is greedy and hungry. I am always hungry. I am always a stomach full of teeth and need. Need, god, I need. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon, sometimes in between. Sometimes I am not a girl, but a slice of desire. Mother, if desperation were human, she would wear my eyes. She would hold my hands. She would take me by the neck and fill me until I was boneless. Later she would write in her diary, today I destroyed a girl and it tasted like wine.”
― Azra Tabassum

“be insecure in peace. allow yourself lowness. know that it is only a country on the way to who you are. – traveling”
― Nayyirah Waheed, salt.

“your heart is the softest place on earth. take care of it.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, salt.

“you broke the ocean in half to be here. only to meet nothing that wants you. –immigrant”
― Nayyirah Waheed, salt.