Henrietta’s Reviews > How to Wake a Butterfly > Status Update

“I am loved – if not in the flesh –
In thoughts and prayers”

“My mirror screams “sand”
And I know that nothing will
Ever grow on this body
Flowers die here.”

“I’ve found love,
I’ve found love, damn it!


This is the kind of passion
Nations go to war for…
This is the kind of love
That gets gods crucified”

“The truth is you seem to carry my hurt as well, I think I do. And when there is a need, you lay it down slowly because when boys like me break everyone around needs to have their shoes on. So here I am, ready to give. Ready for everything, you.”

“And I’ve loved you in places
My feet haven’t touched yet.”

“Your smile is a chest
To keep me warm in nights
I have yet to find sleep.”

“This woman…
She says come lie down.

And my skin mumbles a song
In a language I’m just starting to understand
And if you decide to travel far enough
And meet her in her fields of yellows
Tell her
That I now understand why I want to live.”

“We happened because we happened
All songs – even beautiful songs –
Are indeed made up.”

“Thicker walls keep the devils at bay
Thicker walls keep heartbreak at bay.”

“My existence waving red flags
But I’m trying, I swear!
I wake up every morning, trying.”

“Parts of me have started a new dialect
I do not understand
And they speak to each other,
Almost shouting
Like neighbours on lands with no streets
I bat my eyelids to look at the future
And they giggle, they mock,
A secret only they know”