Only Once

Love comes easy when you’re young

and you can be forgiven for thinking

love is like rain, and rain is relentless

But at the end of your life—if ever

you find yourself thinking about love

then you never did see its return

Because you can’t really comprehend

not at first—that anything in this world

that comes that easy, only comes once

Before Love

The night my world crashed into his, I belonged to no one. By the time I collapsed into bed, the sun was already on her way. My body throbbed to the phantom music ringing in my ears. My feet ached from dancing the whole night long. And I couldn’t stop smiling.

That was the moment before everything.

When I thought I was in love—when I had yet to feel the full force of it.

Before You Leave

Before you leave in the morning

remember what you’ve left

The girl you swore your heart to

the dream you held as you slept

Before the evening carries you

to the dawn of another day

think of how you’d miss her

as you go on your way

Before the sun goes down again

and you resign yourself to fate

know that it is in your hands

before it gets too late

Not You

I don’t want the best thing to come too early in my life

I hope with all my heart it wasn’t you

Too Close

I live my life between being loved

or being known

wishing the two were one

To be loved is a wave rushing past

the shoreline; filling every void

To be known is an ache

that never goes away

Now that you love me, are you afraid

to know me? Will distance tell you

what your heart refuses to see?

You’re too close to me, my love

You’re missing everything

A Woman

The day you become a woman, they hand you a grenade. And you must choose between hurling or holding. Between want and expectation. Excise your desire, while you are hungry for everything. Give up your life for a version of you that isn’t you at all.

Do not think twice about the imposition when they tell you, there is nothing worse than a fallen woman. Nothing worse than a woman who doesn’t know her place. You will learn otherwise when you trade your truth for an ideal that no amount of good you do will ever be enough anyway.

So, make up your own rules. Don’t be afraid to hurl, to fall, to get dirt on your face. Sweetheart, let this be your one glorious mess because in the end the only person you should answer to is yourself.

After all, you are a woman,

And long before they punish you for what you’ve done, they will punish you for what you are.

Breaking

I feel a crack inside—

the sound of something breaking

I know this feeling well

I want to self-destruct

Burn my whole life to the ground