The Princess Saves Herself in This One

repeat after me: you owe no one your forgiveness. - except maybe yourself.

ah, life— the thing that happens to us while we’re off somewhere else blowing on dandelions & wishing ourselves into the pages of our favorite fairy tales.

once upon a time, the princess rose from the ashes her dragon lovers made of her & crowned herself the mother-fucking queen of herself.   - how’s that for a happily ever after?

i’m not scared of the monsters hidden underneath my bed. i’m much more scared of the boys with messy brown hair, sleepy eyes, & mouths that only know how to form half-truths.

that is what abuse is: knowing you are going to get salt but still hoping for sugar for nineteen years.   -

the only thing required to be a woman is to identify as one. - period, end of story.

i’m pretty sure you have s t a r d u s t running through those v e i n s.   - women are some kind of magic.

if i ever have a daughter, the first thing i will teach her to love will be the word “no” & i will not let her feel guilty for using it.   - “no” is short for “fuck off.

raid your library. read everything you can get your hands on & then some.   go on, collect words & polish them up until they shine like starlight in your palm.   make words your finest weapons— a gold-hilted sword to cut your enemies d o w n.   - a survival plan of sorts.

fiction: the ocean i dive headfirst into when i can no longer breathe in reality. - a mermaid escapist II.

the princess locked herself away in the highest tower, hoping a knight in shining armor would come to her rescue.   - i didn’t realize i could be my own knight.

sticks & stones never broke my bones, but words made me starve myself until you could see all of them.   -

the love some girls have for other girls is so gentle & so soft & so fucking beautiful, & these girls deserve to have better stories than the ones where they are murdered because they love with too much of their hearts. -love is never a weakness.

all of the oceans & galaxies did not conspire together to create me just so i could reproduce for you. -Startling Fact #1

he opened me up like a book & poured the poetry back into me. -my personal pen and paper

When I had no friends I reached inside my beloved books & sculpted some out of 12 pt Times new roman. -- & it was almost good enough.

it is strange how sisters can be saviors or strangers & sometimes a bit of both.

when I die, do not waste a minute mouring me. I may go, but I will leave behind all my thousand & one lives — a bookmad girl never dies.

if you don't want to end up in someone else's poem, then maybe you should start treating people better for a change. - an unapologetic poet.

I am so glad we were born during the same lifetime. -I may not believe in fate, but I believe in you.

a world where all human beings are taken care of shouldn't be called a "revolutionary" way of life & yet it is. -burn

you have been the star of each & every one of my nightmares. "- you left but you stayed.

just because they don’t hit you doesn’t mean it isn’t abuse.   wouldn’t you think it a crime to look up at the night sky & tell the stars that they have no sparkle?   guess what? you shine brighter than all the starlight there has ever been or ever will be.   - emotional abuse is still abuse.

where do all the memories go, the ones we hide away with lock & key yet continue to shape us all the s a m e? "- did it really happen if i can't remember it?

write the story. push your hands into the dirtiest parts of yourself. take the rot & decay & turn it into nourishment & life. water it & sing to it & show it sunlight. grow a beautiful garden from your aching & teach yourself how to thrive from it. write your story.

friend request from ........." a) the girl who said you were ugly. b) the girl who said your voice was off-key. c) the girl who refused to defend you. d) the girl who laughed at you behind your back & to your face. e) the girl who took your lunch money every day because she said you didn't need to eat. f) the girl who said you were "fat" even after you starved yourself to death. g) the girl who was supposed to be your best friend. h) all the above. -keep pressing ignore, lovely.

if love is a battlefield, then i must have forgotten all of my armor at home. -a war i never agreed to fight

no” is short for “fuck off.

i am a lioness who is no longer afraid to let the world hear her roar -an ode to me

he promised to fix me & he left me more s h a t t e r e d than i had been before. - but now i’ve got gold in the cracks.

i bet you regret making an enemy out of me. -

you may not have left (many) bruises on my skin, but you left giant blackberry bruises all over my soul. - i still wonder who i would have been.