Milk and Honey

by Rupi Kaur

how is it so easy for you to be kind to people he asked milk and honey dripped from my lips as i answered cause people have not been kind to me

you were so afraid of my voice i decided to be afraid of it too

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

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

he placed his hands on my mind before reaching for my waist my hips or my lips he didn’t call me beautiful first he called me exquisite

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

i need someone who knows struggle as well as i do someone willing to hold my feet in their lap on days it is too difficult to stand the type of person who gives exactly what i need before i even know i need it the type of lover who hears me even when i do not speak is the type of understanding i demand

kiss me like i am the center point of gravity and you are falling into me like my soul is the focal point of yours.

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

the one who arrives after you will remind me love is supposed to be soft he will taste like the poetry i wish i could write

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 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

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.

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