and feelings were always smarter things than thoughts - Andrea Gibson

They want you thinking you're bad at being a girl instead of good at being yourself. They want you to buy your blush from a store instead of letting it bloom from your butterflies. They're telling you to blend in, like you've never seen how a blender works. Like they think you've never seen the mess from the blade.

Maybe sometimes you get tired of seeing people’s humanity in moments where they’re outright refusing to show us their humanity.

She's heard stories of Vietnam vets
who can still feel the tingling of their amputated limbs.
She's wondering how many women are walking around this world
feeling the tingling of their amputated wings,
remembering what it was like to fly, to sing.