When You Ask Me Where I'm Going Quotes

“brother
when did you forget
that the walls of
a woman's body
were once a fortress
protecting you from
a world you were
too fragile for?
she has been
defending you
long before you decided
that she has no place
defending you.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“Depression
is this ghost
that looms
over my
shoulder
& nobody
seems to
believe
in spirits.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“in case you were told otherwise
allow me to make this as clear as distilled water
it is never your fault.

their hands are only their hands. they are not trip wire
that can be set off by your tongue. or your actions.
or your mistakes.

their bodies are only their bodies. they do not disobey
their owners or forget to follow orders.

their decisions are only their decisions.
you did not make them do this.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“in the end, it is not the smoke that we all suffocate on

but the

silence”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“there is no way
to live in a body
on an earth
in a universe
this complex
and not carry
questions in
your pockets
like accumulated
change
i have come to fear
my lack of answers
far less than humans
who claim to have
them all.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“sometimes family doesn't fit
within the lines
that are drawn for us.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“in case you were told otherwise
allow me to make this as clear as distilled water
it is never your fault.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“for a moment, someone hears and this is enough.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“the next time you ask me where i'm going
please recall that i am three parts indecision
and one part reckless abandon
that i have seldom bothered to look back
at the wreckage i've left in my wake and
will never be bothered to master the flames
at my fingertips anyways”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“scream
so that one day
a hundred years from now
another sister will not have to
dry her tears wondering
where in history
she lost her voice.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“you are light and even the shadow you cast are warm”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“of course
they're drawn to your magic

you soar far above their heads
like peter pan

but that doesn't mean
you need to be a refuge
for all these lost boys”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“they say lavender softens anxiety
and i wonder if i can
plant a garden so dense
in your mind
that the knots in your chest unravel
and never tighten again.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“some poems
are water
some poems flow
only from the eyes.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“Tomorrow would come and we'd figure it out when we had to, Right now, however, there was only light.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“i am better at building gates than opening doors”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“how do you feel today?

like my lungs are not collapsing. like everything is not a mistake. like i am not a mistake. like i do not need to erase myself to fix myself. like i am not a single branch floating in an upset sea. like there is something bright out there. that maybe. just maybe. it is for me.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“an ocean pours from her red-rimmed eyes”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“the trouble is, there is no way to preserve life in a photograph.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“do you remember the night i left all my tears on your skin?”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“i wonder if it is true. that things can get better
that my mind can will itself in a new direction.
that i can go as far as i take myself.
i am cynical
but i am also
desperate.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“i am told to stop
thinking so much
and i wonder why
it is that in order to
survive in this world
i must not use
my mind.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“because minds like these
are not easily stitched back together
when torn at the seams”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“i have often known
the heaviest hearts
to recite the lightest words
and the burdenless
do not understand
that to dive headfirst
into oceans like ours
is to surely drown”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“fold the
unfinished
poems of
our people
into paper
lanterns and
release them
let light fill
all the spaces
where words
cannot yet go.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“i am not your poem.
i was never your brushtroke.
i am not your tragedy
or your failed attempts to find meaning.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“am i meant to burn my bones in guilt?
am i meant to douse myself in shame?
am i meant to apologize for the way
you could not make me love my own
oppresion?”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“don't get me wrong.
forgiveness and i are well acquainted
but just because she had good intentions
it doesn't mean she ever kept me safe.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“you encounter flowers
scattered across your skin
for the first time, you stop
to sit among them.”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment

“I'm trying to settle into my body
feel comfortable inside its walls”
― Jasmin Kaur, When You Ask Me Where I'm Going: Young Adult Prose Poetry on Trauma, Feminism, and Empowerment