#twcprose

[heartofmuse]

Truth is that the heart needs more forms of love from your partner than just romantic love. It needs the nurturing and unconditional love like the one that comes from a parent. It needs the love that helps you achieve your maximum potential, that empowers your virtues and is patient with your flaws like that of a teacher. It needs the love of a friend who will listen without judgment, who will laugh with you and be your confidant and accomplice. It needs the devoted love of a healer who will tend to your wounds and hurts and never turn a blind eye to your suffering but rather help the healing process knowing all the time the healing and the timing is all yours. Love is more than just romance and passion, and sooner or later it will die out if you do not nurture all the other faces of love. For if love has a thousand faces, how bland would it be if my love for you were the same one all the time. 

e.v.e.

[nostalgicjoy]

dear past self,

Someday, you’re going to realize that not everything is linear. You can plan everything out in your head but life will always surprise you. I wish I can make you stop wishing for things you can’t control because time is fickle. At one point or another, you are going to be too late for that ride to somewhere brighter than here. You’re going to be lost somewhere in the overwhelming hours and days of the past, and you’re going to regret not doing enough for yourself. If today you are wide awake, don’t yearn for me. Don’t lose yourself trying to find me, circling around and around the silhouettes of faces you’ve discarded and faces you’ve hoped for. What I mean to say, my hands are not your hands, and I’m quite certain your lilac heart has a better chance blossoming into a bigger flowerbed for all the dreams and hopes we both have. That is to say, you have more rooms to grow and more spaces to fill with love and laughter and more days to arrive in places that matter. Someday, you’re going to open up and many things will pour in and maybe that scares you. And honestly, it should. But there will always be light. There will always be light.

[kidgillis]

I'm in need of something. I'm not sure exactly what it is. But there's a craving for it—a need to experience what it could bring. There's a desire for it. It's so close but still so far away. I can feel it. I can sense it. I can hear it. I'm just not sure of its name. It is everything I need in the moment and everything I want in the future. It is everything I could ask for, but none of the things I thought were vital. I changed from being in its presence to just wanting to be engulfed by it entirely. It doesn't make sense to most, but to me, I finally understand. A healthy love will scare you, have you run for the hills, and leave you to examine yourself before figuring out your need to return. This is an experience worth losing yourself and your pride for. I'm just happy to learn that without complications and repercussions.

[heightenedheartbreak]

“i miss you immensely. i miss watching the stars rise & the moon set on the horizon with a bloody orange new beginning. something in the orange mornings tinged with the aching memory of you. i think of you often, often enough to wonder if you think of me, us, just as often. if when you make the drive past my street daily if you ever sometimes turn left sometimes (or right) down this block, and remember. remember our oranges, remember our stars that we made wishes on, on the front lawn during the witching hours. if you remember how you wouldn’t tell a soul what that wish was, because if you did, it wouldn’t come true. do you remember the lamplight, the cigarettes burning, the patio lights shining. i gave us up because of an undeniable fear. i hold onto that fear, and the inconceivable love that i have for you. i see the future you’re making from the distance, and i would not expect anything less for you, even in our separate lives i think of you. i think of how much i love you, loved you, and how scared i was to show you how I truly felt. i stuffed those feelings of fondness, love, and affection with turmoil, hate, & sadness. but, i will always remember us, and our sunsets.”

(C.B.)

[kiramalibu]

my thoughts are just as

fragmented as my thoughts

i fear the future and

i don’t want to be known for

what i had to spend,

but there’s no equity in

the things that i’ve bought

there isn’t a piece of me

that my mind doesn’t taunt

my heart is hanging on life

support and all i can

offer are apologies

i just hope one day

my body can forgive me

kira malibu

[stormykatie]

you are one of the reasons i believe in the existence of a living God.

-katie

[inksplashgirl]

my favorite

Everyone loves Fridays

the work week is almost over, after all

but for a long time,

Monday was my favorite day.

A fresh start, a new beginning,

a clean slate.

Then one week,

you wandered into my Friday afternoon.

It was quiet, pleasant, just two friends.

And I guess you liked it-

because the next week you were back.

And again, and again, and again.

Until the door would click open

and my heart would race, hoping

that you would step through it.

And one day, I looked up and realized that

Fridays were my favorite, and so were you.

The Fridays where we'd walk, talking

about everything and nothing

just breathing in each other's space

had become something I counted on,

something I looked forward to-

and so had you.

[thejournalofbisonjack]

I don’t believe I could have written this when my mother was still alive; at least, not this truthfully. I thought about trying to explain what it is about, but there are so many people who were victims as kids—I don’t think I need to.

Turpentine

.

It is summer,

evening still;

shapeless amber

thresholds,

half-remembered,

half-real;

gestural brushstrokes

of ochre and gold

beneath diaphanous

smudges of silver

and purple.

A mother’s silhouette

appears in a window;

a light comes on

above the porch;

a police car pulls

into the driveway

and turns off its lights:

Intimacy and entropy,

rage and prayer,

shimmering in the

nebula of a dying star.

[ho1y-water]

And so, the end of times. This thing you dreaded. Your

“what

if”.

Your biggest fear.

But nothing explodes. You simply find yourself

different.

Like sound ceased to travel.

Like deafness,

like death,

like plunging your head underwater.

Nothing changes.

I asked God to turn down the music but I heard no response.

I asked God if change was possible and all he said was, “come back later”.

I tried calling God, but the line was busy.

I tried again

but he was out to lunch.

The stars shine for everyone. Even you.

You don’t even have to pray.

Did you know that?

[heartofmuse]

I will not hold close to my breast anything that does not desire to be in the embrace of my arms. I will not kiss your lips if you turn your face away from mine. I will open my arms and let you drift and say farewell. But if you hold me tight and look into my eyes and let me see the truth of what lies your heart, I will remain yours as I have ever been since the day you said you wanted your hand in mine, and this life we will live and share, walking side by side, a pure magical bond forged, and sustained by our will to love.

e.v.e.

[nostalgicjoy]

February,

Today you brought more sun than January did in her 31-day stay in my home. I looked up and basked in your warm light. Wore it around my neck. Tuck it in my back pocket. I’ve been waiting to come alive and feel awake. Look for water in the trees. Yearn for air from people’s mouths. Search for heart in the night sky. The days have been lonely, dear February. Lonely in the way the stars hide in the mornings. In the way my ghosts retreat into closets when someone knocks on my door. Lonely in the way I’m stretched and shaped to fit the outline of what happy is supposed to look like. The days have been tiring, dear February. But at least today you gave me a glimmer of hope.

[kidgillis]

I remember being told I must arrive at my sacred space. Only I will know when and where I am supposed to be. That those I meet along my journey there will teach me great things. That my only mission is to become who I'm supposed to be. I was born for this mission. With love, I was nurtured on this path. I've had many firsts here. I've taken many wins and losses. Ten years ago, I learned how to walk into rooms confidently. Smile on my face, head up, shoulder back, walking confidently in my stride. Twenty years ago, I learned how to capture the hearts of those I encountered. Allowing honesty to set my pace, having a mix of kindness escape my lips, and open intellect to express my thoughts while positive vibrations set my vibe. Thirty years ago, I learned how to embrace and release all that I experienced. Operating in divine feminine nature, intuned with my emotions, led by a God's spirit, and blessed with ancient wisdom and intuition - I became human. And I'm beyond delighted to continue learning in this place...This beautiful place.

[heightenedheartbreak]

“to love and lose and still be kind”

- Warsan Shire

[kiramalibu]

you cannot hold onto

life so tightly,

doing so won’t ensure

that it won’t suffocate you

sometimes letting go

is the only way you can

liberate yourself

perhaps it’s the only way

you can survive in this world

kira malibu

[stormykatie]

a woman is criminalized

should she decide to

terminate a pregnancy

while a man can back out anytime

such is the reality

i am forced to live by

and so is jessica

and katrina

and amanda

and gabrielle

and thousands of others

in gritted teeth,

i try to swallow back

the bile rising from my throat

i feel nauseated

just thinking about that

night at the parking lot

where my jeans were torn

ferociously from my body

i tremble from the warm

puff of wind blowing

my nape

my boyfriend just learned

the truth this morning

when i threw up

all over the kitchen floor

he was aghast

i tried to reason out

he didn't use protection

because he expected me

to be the one responsible for it

it's a sad world,

gina could only weep now

a sad world for women

but therese tried to play it cool

though the pregnancy test

that screams positive in her face

shatters her composure

she never wanted this

haunting reality

but her neighbor had forced

himself on her one drunken night

an episode she's trying to drown

in a deadly shot of alcohol

it's a cruel world

but rachel is carrying her seventh child

seventh child!

as though the six she bore

aren't too many

rita had her second child today

via c-section

a procedure she could barely afford

but her labor seemed longer

than the death march

she was not able to bear down

so a cut suddenly became

a logical procedure

it's a cruel world

and dana knew it

the moment she was judged

for not wanting children

thus having her tubes tied

at twenty five

it's a cruel world

for maria

for delia

for claudine

for martha

and thousands

of other women

who have to live with

society's standards

of right and wrong

a woman is criminalized

should she decide to

terminate a pregnancy

while a man can back out anytime

i close my eyes

as i listen to people

with no uterus

decide on my future

-katie

Image: https://wallpaperaccess.com/download/sad-woman-1940837

[inksplashgirl]

poet

my raindrop words

are filling rivers

because I blinked

some syllables

out of my eyes

and now I'm a poet.