ways to break this southern girl’s heart…

she’s made up of sweet tea and poetry

Ways To Break This Southern Girl’s Heart
after Diane Lato’s “Easy Ways To Break My Heart”

– give her unsweetened tea. there are no two more terrible words to a southern girl when put together

– tell her you’re an alabama fan. you’ve gotta know that she’s gonna bleed volunteer orange ‘til the end no matter

– tell her you don’t like the mountains. her heart has east tennessee sunrises imprinted on it… and she wants to show you every sunlit, treelined, starkissed view

– turn down the volume when ‘country girl’ by ray lamontagne comes on. papa used to play it for her on the porch, and she’s gotta hear every bit of it, every time

– you wanna really crush her heart? then ask to meet her daddy. because he isn’t in her heart anymore. he was the first one who broke it, and in too many ways, long ago

– and if you wanna just completely shatter her into pieces… then try to give her an ordinary love. because she needs love like wildfire. like forever-fire. until every last southern sun sets. till the stars burn out. and to know her heart is finally safe… with you

…she needs to know that breaking her heart is the very last thing you would ever want to do.

– butterflies rising

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between soul and skin…

maybe tonight we just dissolve into the stars... leaving gravity behind

maybe tonight
we just dissolve into the stars…
leaving gravity behind,
quieting our heads and trading
all our dreams and curiosities
between soul and skin.
i just. get. restless.
and i can’t stay too human
for too long… it’s too heavy.
i need to leave the atmosphere,
or pull your soul aesthetic closer;
close enough to taste moon dust
in the back of my throat.
and whether we actually transcend
or just lose all sense…
i don’t care.
let’s break open and
scatter and spill and spill…
our wild universes
colliding under these stars.

– butterflies rising

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passion. and vulnerability. fire and wild and art and love and sugar and soul….

passion. and vulnerability. fire and wild and art and love and sugar and soul.

passion.
and vulnerability.
fire and wild and art and love
and sugar and soul.
a pull towards the stars;
an ache to be more free…
to feel. so. alive.
with a need to feel things deeper
and sweeter and closer,
and a heart that changes shape
when something moves you.
it’s all so beautiful.
so let go of the ways this
world says you’re supposed to be
and feel all of the ways
that your soul is.

– butterflies rising

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it could be something beautiful…

all of this heat and heart and wild intensity... it's beautiful. - butterflies rising

i never knew…
because they didn’t want me to know…
that it’s spiritual. touch is spiritual.
passion is spiritual. soul to skin…
it’s. all. spiritual.
they never told me that it could be beautiful.
that i’m beautiful. that you’re beautiful.
and all of that heat and heart
and wild intensity… it’s. beautiful.
and little by little, i’m trying to trade in
shame and fear and just let myself feel
all the things i’ve never let myself feel.
maybe then it could be something… beautiful.

– butterflies rising

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