Tag: words

Listen. Love what you will. You hurt no one by having a heart.

Listen. Put on your dragon scales in the morning. Wing your eyeliner like the sandals of Hermes. Paint your lips so bright that they look like sunrises over oceans. Wear short skirts. Wear tight shirts. Wear what makes you feel like you are capable of conquering. Kiss the mirror like she is a lover you have waited too long to fall for. Let no one call you vain for refusing to bend beneath their feet. Let no one call you stupid. Tell them you can obsesses about make up and still understand geometry.

Listen, we’re only young once, love the things they will rip from you later. Watch Disney on repeat. Put on your tiara and sing loudly. Dream about a fairytale wedding. Own too many plants and coo whenever you’re close to a puppy. Jump in leaf piles, own fuzzy dinosaur blankets, color in pictures of ponies. You can still have a job, own land, and be in touch with reality. You are not weakened by your dreams.

Listen, love like a war cry. Take people into your arms without thinking. Smear your heart like graffiti across buildings. Cry at a Cheerio’s commercial, cry at football, cry from laughing. Don’t be afraid to show emotion. The only behavior which is unnatural is pretending that we are unaffected by the world around us. Sing along to Taylor Swift. Sing along to Queen. Sing along to whatever gets your blood pumping. Don’t ever apologize for liking something.

Listen. You deserve to love whatever you put your hands on, and you deserve to love loudly

happy things:

1. cats who curl up in your lap
without being prompted
2. record players
3. leather jackets and leather boots
4. four-hour games of cheater’s
monopoly and owning half the board
due to your questionable resource
attainment (you stole from the bank)
5. finally beating the boss level
6. when you start singing and so
does everyone else
7. tiny cupcakes
8. bats with their little ears and teeth and
fruit-eating habits i mean talk about
a bad reputation these poor things aren’t
scary at all
9. getting sick and having somebody
treat you like a princess
10. when the owner of an animal says “oh
he doesn’t really like anyone” and then
it leans up against you like you’re its
best friend and some part of you
whispers “do not doubt my power”
11. outfits that make you feel like
you are kahleesi, mother of dragons
12. trips to the mall with your friends when
you start trying on the weirdest things you
can find
13. anything fried
14. when you make repeated eye contact with
an attractive stranger and mentally encourage them
to talk to you
15. showers
16. beach trips that last for the whole day
17. discovering somebody’s passion and
hearing them talk about it and watching
their eyes light up
18. kites that kiss the sky
19. snappy comebacks everyone
overhears and applauds you for
20. sweaters
21. falling asleep next to your best friend
22. foxes
23. getting a better score on your test
than the asshole know-it-all kid
who goes “what did you get” to you all the
time because he likes to show off that
he did better – rubbing those two points
in his face is honestly so overwhelmingly
excellent
24. cooking for your family
25. when little kids ask you to play with them
and make you the queen or the king or
katniss everdeen and serve you tea out of tiny
cups and saucers
26. ice skating
27. those people you can dance awfully
in front of and it won’t matter because
they’ll be dancing too
28. receiving drunk texts from someone
who just wants you to know how beautiful
you really are because drunk words
are sober thoughts
29. the ongoing struggle between tea and coffee
and the fact people will often surprise you
with which one they choose (and the fact
it doesn’t really matter but knowing
how they take their tea or coffee is
still such a great thing to know about someone)
30. giving presents, particularly when
they are handmade
31. perfecting your poker face and
raking in the benefits
32. getting a song stuck in someone else’s
head because you were singing it
33. the smell of rain
34. clothes fresh out of the dryer
35. hitting only green lights and
road trips in general
36. fresh-baked bread
37. getting a plant to grow
38. hearing your favorite song
on the radio or in a store or
in the mouth of someone you love
39. discussing literature,
particularly harry potter
40. finding a new band to obsess over
41. getting to show someone
your favorite things and watching
how they fall in love the way you did
42. new episodes of good shows and
marathons of reruns
43. when you get to show up an asshole teacher
by correcting them
44. soft blankets
45. tree houses
46. actually finishing everything on
your to-do list
47. finding five dollars in your pocket
48. good books and good movies and good
musicals
49. family, even if not related by blood
50. being alive, being alive, being
on this earth with so many things
that could make your
heart sing.

close the gap, close your howling teeth, close 
off your heart and stop crying 
you already never sleep

close the door, don’t dream of him
standing on the front step with the rain falling
and flowers clenched in a sweaty fist
or maybe with just an 
apology, just three words, besides,
“fuck, i’m sorry”
never felt right 
falling from his lips

close the box of his things, burn it or send it or
give it to goodwill, close the loop and 
kill his number, stop asking for answers
when he isn’t willing to swallow
the questions, close the circle of friends that
all ask why you’re not quite
over him

close the tabloids with dating tips and thin tips and 
steak tips he would have loved, pick up a controller 
and a first-person-shooter that would have made him
motion-sick, kill aliens, kill yourself somewhere else than
irl, kill a turret and pull yourself into the portal
after it

close yourself like a vacation house. it’s time
for spring-cleaning. this means: all you,
twenty-four seven. just you and yourself
and sorting the trash into the dustbin.

close out the dieting tips, join a dance class,
join a gym, work out because you want and
not because he’s asked for it. close the “new text”
he won’t read, pick up a notebook and a pen,
spill out everything you never said. delete it
or publish it on the internet. close the hair dye lid
after shaking it, it’ll get all over the counter and you’ll
have to bleach it. i think red looks good on you, own it.
close the new bra clasp onehanded. i think the 
eighty-five dollars on victoria’s secret weren’t at all
wasted, and by the way, you’re amazing. close down
the day with a little light yoga. sun salutations are good 
for your aura. close off a part of your savings for 
that tattoo you always wanted. a few dollars here and there
add up to five hundred. close the bar with your friends,
stumble home or walk them while sober – both are funny
and besides, we’re only young once we might as well stalk
the night like we own it. close the overdue charge 
at the library, start reading again whenever you’re lonely. 
close the pop-ups and watch movies illegally. close
your full dairy and feel good you actually finished one 
for once. close your pride and call your mom, 
because yes she’ll never approve of the haircut but
honestly it’s sort of humorous at this point and all that worrying
feels just like home. close hurt, close pain, close pining.

open yourself up again and say hello to the sun.
return to loving your home. it’s been 
long enough.