Cherie

“Tell me it was for the hunger
& nothing less. For hunger is to give
the body what it knows

it cannot keep. That this amber light
whittled down by another war
is all that pins my hand to your chest.”
― Ocean Vuong, Night Sky with Exit Wounds

“When your little girl asks you if she's pretty,
your heart will drop like a wineglass on the hardwood floor.
Part of you will want to say
“Of course you are, don't ever question it,”
and the other part, the part that is clawing at you,
will want to grab her by her shoulders,
look straight into the wells of her eyes
until they echo back to you and say
“You do not have to be if you don't want to. It is not your job.”
Both will feel right.
One will feel better.
She will only understand the first.
When she wants to cut her hair off
or wear her brother's clothes,
you will feel the words in your mouth like marbles.
“You do not have to be pretty if you don't want to.
It is not your job.”
― Caitlyn Siehl, What We Buried

“If we could light up the room with pain,
we’d be such a glorious fire.”
― Ada Limon, Bright Dead Things

“Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, you don’t know how to dance, do you, Josephine?” I didn’t know how to dance. I didn’t want anything to do with his biscuit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Out of the Easy