April Michael

“I will teach my daughter not to wear her skin like a drunken apology. I will tell her ‘make a home out of your body, live in yourself, do not let people turn you into a regret, do not justify yourself. If you are a disaster it is not forever, if you are a disaster you are the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen. Do not deconstruct from the inside out, you belong here, you belong here, not because you are lovely, but because you are more than that.

— Azra T. “Your hands are threads, your body is a canvas”
― Azra T.

“Peel your heart like a pomegranate.
Offer it to him, palms outwards.
Say “eat.” Watch him come away
stained red by you.
You’re in his teeth. He’ll kiss you with that mouth.”
― Azra T.

“Hold everything very carefully unless it is your lover’s back. Then, become metal, become teeth, do not gentle yourself for any man. Do not change for the ones who think that
you should be softer, less mouth, less voice. You do not owe regrowth to anyone but yourself. When they begin to ask for you to shape yourself around them, leave. Shut the door firmly. Do not look back.”
― Azra Tabassum, Shaking the Trees

“I’m always soft for you, that’s the problem. You could come knocking on my door five years from now and I would open my arms wider and say ‘come here, it’s been too long, it felt like home with you.”
― Azra T.