Aphrodite Made Me Do It

to know that you

will triumph.

to not fear the day.

to know you are stronger

than what has hurt you.

your life is short and

all the more precious for it.

I do not seek

to tell you how to live, only to live at all.

You still have the pen in your hand no matter what you choose to do with it.

I don’t know what to call homesickness

when I’m home.

I know Pandora. I understand Eve. I have been them and I have made them, both. Their stories repeat, as does mine, in the hands of every person who scrambles to be both what they’re expected to be and what they are. Everyone who upends their own darkness and swallows it.

Had always tucked away the thought because that’s how you live with bad thoughts. You pretend they only belong to other people.

There is nothing inherently toxic about anger.

It is hard not to be angry.

There is no reason not to be angry.

To love something deeply

is to know

that you will go to great lengths

to protect it.

To sing of love

is almost always

to sing of war.