breathe in tenderness…

i used to
think it was beautiful
the way i offered you all of my softness
and filled the air with tenderness
in the wake of your violence…
but now i know that i deserve to breathe
in tenderness too.

– butterflies rising

love will not ask you to leave yourself behind

but if it’s love…
when it asks you to come along,
it will not ask you to leave
yourself behind

– butterflies rising

now that i know you exist…
how do i not love you.
how do i not follow this gravity towards you.
now that i feel this, how could i ever not. feel. this.
i don’t know how i could ever be here in this life
and not. love you. i just have no choice.

but then… you made a choice.
and now i have no choice.

and i don’t know how…
how will i be here in this world
with you somewhere else in this world.
how. will i learn to pull myself out of this gravity
and not feel this anymore now that i have felt. this.
how…
now that i know you exist…
how do i not love you.

– butterflies rising

now that i know you exist,
how do i not love you

– butterflies rising

…the kind of boy who would
never break a pinky swear

– butterflies rising

love can’t exist in a space without kindness

the spaces we’ve called love…

it’s heartbreaking
how many of us have felt in love
with people who were not even kind
to us…

how many of us weren’t taught that
love can’t exist in a space without kindness.
or without respect. or in a space that
doesn’t honor us and cherish us.

so many of us are learning that the spaces
we’ve called being in love, weren’t
spaces of love at all

– butterflies rising