you soften me….

you soften me.

– butterflies rising

in a wilderness,
with an unheld hand,
you will learn
to love yourself just as madly,
with the fierceness,
the recklessness,
that you have loved them

– butterflies rising

the way you are…
how much you feel,
how you move, how you love…
you are such light. such brilliant light.
you are meant to be with someone
who is shifted by you,
whose soul is here to be shaken by you,
don’t waste one more tender breath
that you have in your chest on
someone who was only ever there
to break your heart.

– butterflies rising

my cherry lip gloss stain on your cheek…
and how you gripped to keep the car door closed
as if you were afraid opening it would mean
everything we felt in that moment would fall out
never again to be contained

– butterflies rising

i hope you know…
you matter now.
chosen by no one.
belonging to yourself.

– butterflies rising

you close your heart
and you think it is a safety,
but it is a violence against yourself
in the quietest of ways,
yes, quiet, but still a violence,
a brutal, aching violence,
and to love, it is bravery,
and no small bravery,
but a fearless, grand reach into
an uncontrollable unknown,
yes, an uncertainty,
but maybe, what a beautiful unknown

– butterflies rising