may you collect things
may you keep them in a box at the foot of your bed
may you collect things like you collected chapsticks and slime
things like love notes, pairs of headphones with broken buds
rips in your clothes,
mismatched socks and crushes’ hugs
blood stained sheets and brave new looks
that you wear out,
as armor
collect them and hide them behind piles of clothes and heaps of textbooks
and only share them,
when you are ready.
may you see what i see,
and not what you are told to see
yes, you are draping limbs and clamoring bones, knocking together like wind chimes
you are doe eyed, with eyes that borrowed from the sea
freckled like glitter and extending up, up, up to the sky
because that is where us girls, are from.
you are cities of dividing cells and
fractals of ever shifting
shimmering
light,
you do not need to pretend to be shy
you do not need to make yourself smaller
you do not need to make yourself less
may you never quiet your voice, your dreams,
your rule breaking, your music
or your hair,
may you learn to ignore your teachers red pen
may you learn to ignore ignorant men
may you hold on to your rage while it is tangible
and slam doors and kick walls
whine and scream into your pillow
scream for the girls,
scream for the women
your rage is your magic
and it will get shit done
may you pass this daunting threshold with ease,
may your dressing table become your altar
may you know that you are both girl and woman,
may you keep your fairy tales and wishes
and choose to believe in your own myth
may you fall in love and fall apart
and fall back in love again
may your room become your castle
may you enjoy the sweetness of your solitude
may you learn that within you is a vault
a crystal cave
of strength and healing power belonging only to you
a stumbled upon superpower
and only to be unlocked by you
as is the same for any woman.
may you still always be covered in a little bit of dirt
may you remain untamed
may you remember through this state of stretching skin and flux
you always have been and always will be
all girl and all woman