Featured Illustration: Sage Barnes
This is the summer
We blossomed into being
We stepped inside of ourselves
Into the discomfort
Of our own minds
Of our shared spaces
That shape our lives
We learned to make choices
For healing (us)
For nurturing (us)
For surviving.
All the people inside of us
Meet us more often now
We learned to greet them
A little more kindly.
About time.
We have been living in the same house
And it is about time
Our incongruity stopped scratching our skin
From the inside
Making us bleed
Water.
Blood.
Flowers.
Dust.
We stopped explaining ourselves
We haven’t stopped the apologies.
But that has changed.
We say “I’m sorry” not (always) because we must.
We say “I’m sorry” because we have learned
That we are larger than the mistakes we made.
We have always been.
Some remain small all their lives.
Some remain smaller than all that they are.
But we
We (us)
We have blossomed into being.
Thank you for this. I feel as if you pulled the incongruent thoughts out and painted then on the page so I could understand myself. Grateful.
That is so very kind of you to say, I’m extremely touched that you think so! And thank you so much for taking out the time to get back to me, I really appreciate it. Grateful for readers like you.
Very well expressed, Kulsum, language is so so important to cometo terms with oneself and to relate to others – and most importantly the confidence to apologise! Will read more. Keep writing –
Thank you! That means a lot to me.