Milk and Honey

by Rupi Kaur

she was a rose in the hands of those who had no intention of keeping her

trying to convince myself i am allowed to take up space is like writing with my left hand when i was born to use my right - the idea of shrinking is hereditary

i struggle so deeply to understand how someone can pour their entire soul blood and energy into someone without wanting anything in return - i will have to wait till i’m a mother

you are the faint line between faith and blindly waiting - letter to my future lover

i do not want to have you to fill the empty parts of me i want to be full on my own i want to be so complete i could light a whole city and then i want to have you cause the two of us combined could set it on fire

love will come and when love comes love will hold you love will call your name and you will melt sometimes though love will hurt you but love will never mean to love will play no games cause love knows life has been hard enough already

you might not have been my first love but you were the love that made all the other loves irrelevant

how do you turn a forest fire like me so soft i turn into running water

don’t mistake salt for sugar if he wants to be with you he will it’s that simple

you whisper i love you what you mean is i don’t want you to leave

i didn’t leave because i stopped loving you i left because the longer i stayed the less i loved myself

you mustn’t have to make them want you they must want you themselves

i am not a hotel room i am home i am not the whiskey you want i am the water you need don’t come here with expectations and try to make a vacation out of me

the thing worth holding on to would not have let go

you treat them like they have a heart like yours but not everyone can be as soft and as tender you don’t see the person they are you see the person they have the potential to be you give and give till they pull everything out of you and leave you empty

you were the most beautiful thing i’d ever felt till now. and i was convinced you’d remain the most beautiful thing i’d ever feel. do you know how limiting that is. to think at such a ripe young age i’d experienced the most exhilarating person i’d ever meet. how i’d spend the rest of my life just settling. to think i’d tasted the rawest form of honey and everything else would be refined and synthetic. that nothing beyond this point would add up. that all the years beyond me could not combine themselves to be sweeter than you. - falsehood

i don’t know what living a balanced life feels like when i am sad i don’t cry i pour when i am happy i don’t smile i glow when i am angry i don’t yell i burn the good thing about feeling in extremes is when i love i give them wings but perhaps that isn’t such a good thing cause they always tend to leave and you should see me when my heart is broken i don’t grieve i shatter

you are snakeskin and i keep shedding you somehow my mind is forgetting every exquisite detail of your face the letting go has become the forgetting which is the most pleasant and saddest thing to have happened

you were not wrong for leaving you were wrong for coming back and thinking you could have me when it was convenient and leave when it was not

love is not cruel we are cruel love is not a game we have made a game out of love

i am confident i am over you. so much that some mornings i wake up with a smile on my face and my hands pressed together thanking the universe for pulling you out of me. thank god i cry. thank god you left. i would not be the empire i am today if you had stayed. but then. there are some nights i imagine what i might do if you showed up. how if you walked into the room this very second every awful thing you’ve ever done would be tossed out the closest window and all the love would rise up again. it would pour through my eyes as if it never really left in the first place. as if it’s been practicing how to stay silent so long only so it could be this loud on your arrival. can someone explain that. how even when the love leaves. it doesn’t leave. how even when i am so past you. i am so helplessly brought back to you.

i am losing parts of you like i lose eyelashes unknowingly and everywhere

how. did i sit here soaking in the idea that no one else would love me that way. when it was i that taught you. when it was i that showed you how to fill. the way i needed to be filled. how cruel i was to myself. giving you credit for my warmth simply because you had felt it. thinking it was you who gave me strength. wit. beauty. simply because you recognized it. as if i was already not these things before i met you. as if i did not remain all these once you left.

that is the thing about selfish people. they gamble entire beings. entire souls to please their own. one second they are holding you like the world in their lap and the next they have belittled you to a mere picture. a moment. something of the past. one second. they swallow you up and whisper they want to spend the rest of their life with you. but the moment they sense fear. they are already halfway out the door. without having the nerve to let you go with grace. as if the human heart means that little to them.

it is a part of the human experience to feel pain do not be afraid open yourself to it

loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself

you are in the habit of co-depending on people to make up for what you think you lack who tricked you into believing another person was meant to complete you when the most they can do is complement

i thank the universe for taking everything it has taken and giving to me everything it is giving

fall in love with your solitude

there is a difference between someone telling you they love you and them actually loving you

i know it’s hard believe me i know it feels like tomorrow will never come and today will be the most difficult day to get through but i swear you will get through the hurt will pass as it always does if you give it time and let it so let it go slowly like a broken promise let it go

the rivers of punjab flow through my bloodstream so don’t tell me my women aren’t as beautiful as the ones in your country our backs tell stories no books have the spine to carry - women of color

i have what i have and i am happy i’ve lost what i’ve lost and i am still happy

if the hurt comes so will the happiness - be patient

the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it - there is nothing purer than that

how you love yourself is how you teach others to love you

you are your own soul mate

some people are so bitter to them you must be kindest

for you to see beauty here does not mean there is beauty in me it means there is beauty rooted so deep within you you can’t help but see it everywhere

most importantly love like it’s the only thing you know how at the end of the day all this means nothing this page where you’re sitting your degree your job the money nothing even matters except love and human connection who you loved and how deeply you loved them how you touched the people around you and how much you gave them

if you are not enough for yourself you will never be enough for someone else

you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first

what terrifies me most is how we foam at the mouth with envy when others succeed but sigh in relief when they are failing our struggle to celebrate each other is what’s proven most difficult in being human

give to those who have nothing to give to you - seva (selfless service)