
you hold entire
universes inside of you
– butterflies rising
Read More →society
you cannot try to silence
a collective pain for so long and not
expect a collective rage to eventually come.
– butterflies rising
Read More →i just like good souls,
knowing them, being one,
it’s kind of all that really matters
– butterflies rising
Read More →you are allowed to be lovely
and important,
to speak up, and out, and convicted
from the same mouth that tends
to love and cradles lilies
it’s stunning when you let
why you’re here spill out of you
– butterflies rising
Read More →we cannot curse the sky
if we stay and break bread
with boys
and their troubles
while men full of mountains and moons
are waiting with stories of
how far they’ve come
– butterflies rising
Read More →i hope you know
you matter now
chosen by no one
belonging to yourself
i hope you go on
living in skin untouched by anything that your
sovereignty did not bless into your existence
and breathing air that holds no can’ts
and carries no words
of how a woman
should or should not be
– choices
– butterflies rising
Read More →young boy
you will grow
they will tell you to be strong
they will teach you to be tough
i hope someone tells you to feel
i hope they teach you to be love
young man
grown man
let yourself be love
– butterflies rising
Read More →let a woman
have her own worth.
let her value be found in who she is.
not in who she is to a man.
not in who she is to whom she supports,
or serves, or takes care of, or carries weight for.
not who she is in the context of anyone else’s story.
just who she is. as she is.
bare,
alone,
unburdened,
beautiful,
and worthy.
– butterflies rising
Read More →It was the way he just stood there and wore
a badge next to Mr. Carlos and Mr. Smith
as they raised their fists.
Support, but, a quiet and humble support.
He wasn’t “allowing” them to be equal, or “giving” them
some sort of power, he was simply saying…
You are already equal, and I support you as you
step into your own power.
And that felt right to me. Genuine. Pure. Like an
acknowledgment that oppression of others is really just an
illusion of “betterness” built up from some mix of arrogance,
ignorance, internal lack… unconsciousness. And it’s such
a condescending thing, the idea that we “let” other people be
worthy… as if it’s ours to decide.
And it wasn’t just in that moment, he stayed convicted to
what he believed was right and good for the rest of his life,
And he was rejected for it, for the rest of his life.
But he stayed convicted to what was right and good.
So if in my life I have that same kind of privilege
because of something as surface as my skin,
then I hope I carry that same kind of courage and
conviction and humility in the depths of my being.
– Peter Norman / Solidarity
– butterflies rising
Read More →