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.”

“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.”

“Maybe blood is too thick
A liquid to grow a garden”

“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”