Butterfly 5

by Ashley Antoinette

God had a way of shrinking powerful men and reminding them they were merely human masquerading a faux authority that was never enough when it counted.

“Its not a disability. Its just who y’all are and its rare and its beautiful as fuck.”

I’d like to meet Morgan. I’d like to see the flower that’s distracting you from the plant.”

“Sacrifice. Separation is necessary for growth,

How can you be jealous when you knew what messiah was to ethic before y’all dealt with each other,

Morgan felt like Ethic’s love should come with conditions where Messiah was concerned and the biggest condition, he had already broken, her heart.

What is love? What is love worth? Love is not the thing you need to concern yourself with. Love gone come and love gone leave. That’s just what it does. That shit is so finicky, it’ll say I love you in the morning, and by the same night, you’ll find out it's somewhere else saying the same shit to someone else. Love is a trick, but baby you got to trick bigger.

You require loyalty. What is a man gone do when another skirt enters his space? You require stability. What can he bring to the table to make your life easier? To make your kids’ lives easier? You require honesty. Will he lie to you? Cheat on you? Is he deceitful? Or does he warp reality to fit his narrative? You require dependability. Will a man be there? Will he put other things or people before you? You require opportunity. How can a man elevate you? What he bringing to the table that you don’t have access to? You require transparency. Is a man open to share the hard things? You demand history. Run a man’s past down. What is his trauma? His triggers? Because the things men don’t speak on are the things that make them mistreat you. Most of all, you let go of people who walk away from you. You lift your chin and you let them go.

Queens don’t chase, we sit, and we wait for the greatest man to prove his worth. That man will bring everything I just listed to you on a sil...

Death is a road we all gone travel one day. Every one of us. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a matriculation to a heaven we can’t even imagine. It hurts us because we want to see our loved ones. We want to touch them. We want to hear their voices. We want to possess them, but you never lose your experiences with them. You’ll have those in this lifetime and when you meet her in the next. Eazy is right. Love is felt, not seen. Death is just another phase where the physical is left behind, but the spirit lives on.

Every mountain God puts in front of you is one you’re supposed to climb,”