The Poet X

by Elizabeth Acevedo

Maybe, the only thing that has to make sense about being somebody’s friend is that you help them be their best self on any given day. That you give them a home when they don’t want to be in their own.

And I think about all the things we could be if we were never told our bodies were not built for them.

I will never let anyone see my full heart and destroy it.

I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn’t that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark.