Milk and Honey

by Rupi Kaur

every time you tell your daughter you yell at her out of love you teach her to confuse anger with kindness which seems like a good idea till she grows up to trust men who hurt her cause they look so much like you - to fathers with daughters

a daughter should not have to beg her father for a relationship

PREACH IT SIS

your father is absent

Oml is this about me?

i am your daughter. i know the small talk is the only way you know how to tell me you love me. cause it is the only way i know how to tell you.

he says i am sorry i am not an easy person to want i look at him surprised who said i wanted easy i don’t crave easy i crave goddamn difficult

i am ready for you i have always been ready for you

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

you’ve touched me without even touching me

you were so distant i forgot you were there at all

Mofo named preston mf mangone

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

he only whispers i love you as he slips his hands down the waistband of your pants this is where you must understand the difference between want and need you may want that boy but you certainly don’t need him

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

Ive never felt something more. Oh my gosh

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

i am a museum full of art but you had your eyes shut

the thing worth holding on to would not have let go

when you are broken and he has left you do not question whether you were enough the problem was you were so enough he was not able to carry it

i had to leave i was tired of allowing you to make me feel anything less than whole

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

i am undoing you from my skin

it wasn’t you i was kissing — don’t be mistaken it was him on my mind your lips were just convenient

I miss my little muslim boy

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

neither of us is happy but neither of us wants to leave so we keep breaking one another and calling it love

i don’t know why i split myself open for others knowing sewing myself up hurts this much afterward

people go but how they left always stays

you must enter a relationship with yourself before anyone else

do not look for healing at the feet of those who broke you

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

sometimes the apology never comes when it is wanted and when it comes it is neither wanted nor needed - you are too late

Iykyk

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

losing you was the becoming of myself

if the hurt comes so will the happiness - be patient

Daily Reminder:

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

you are your own soul mate

you have to stop searching for why at some point you have to leave it alone

This. This is what i needed to hear.

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

your art is not about how many people like your work your art is about if your heart likes your work if your soul likes your work it’s about how honest you are with yourself and you must never trade honesty for relatability - to all you young poets