Soft in the Middle

by Shelby Eileen

don’t waste this opportunity don’t be scared when the full weight of my heart tests the strength of your hands

something always breaks, or fades away hearts come undone like strings of pearls feelings disappear like earrings by now my jewellery box is almost empty

how do you mourn the loss of a love you never spoke out loud never felt with your own two hands?

I’m just trying to figure out how to remain soft in a world that only knows how to be hard

her body is like a mountain range; messy, beautiful, enough to split the sky my hands in her hair could hold me for the rest of time she is a world I never want to stop learning

girls hold so much love inside of them infinite and curiously undiscovered like the universe and the seas

there’s so much to learn from the sky- how to shine like the stars and how to hold happiness like the sun

this body is a bloom, always shedding petals growing anew twining into foreign foliage retreating when conditions get too harsh