Kelsey

“Prostitution has the same relationship to trafficking as sex has to rape. One is voluntary, the other is not”
― Merlyn Gabriel Miller, Sex, Death, Drugs & Madness

“All I have is a scratch,” I explain. “One little, tiny …” I break down again. Because it’s not just a little tiny scratch, and I now that. The softest parts of my skin are under a stranger’s dirty fingernails, my DNA embedded there along with fast-food grease and his own dandruff. Some of my cells are with him right now and I don’t want them to be. I want them back. I want them all right where they belong and I can’t even imagine if it were the other way around, if I’d woken up with a miasma of them deep inside of me, and the thought sends me retching again, the sound almost drowning out the buzzing of my phone.”
― Mindy McGinnis, The Female of the Species

“Isn’t it strange that
in order to be happy
we have to ignore
all the sadness in the world
at that moment? That we
have to forget the ballooned
bellies of children that are dark
and empty inside. That not too far
from our homes, women sleep on
cardboard and are grateful for the
bitter wind because at least it’s not
rain. That there are teenagers
taught to avoid eye contact
so their fingers are quicker on the trigger
but whose nightmares eventually compel them
to pull the trigger on themselves. That there
are battered dogs with skin taut like a drum,
ribs jutting out, their eyes so beautiful
it makes all the men cry.
Isn’t it strange that in order to be happy
we have to unremember a lot of
what we already know?
Yet,
I still don’t believe that sadness is our
natural disposition. Because there is
so much to be done. So many to help.
Maybe we aren’t meant to be happy
in spite of all the sadness.
Maybe,
it is a call for us to help others
overcome it.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“I'm too open minded that I don't know what to mind anymore.”
― Ahmed Mostafa