Poetry by aral

              ​Incredibly Numing CC




affirmations

yes i want to write poetry yes i want to run away but maybe i wouldn’t if i just knew how to laugh better yes my eyebrows are thick and my cheeks are chubby and i hate to shave yes i want to adorn myself in jewelry and pretty things and at the same time take everything off yes the sea looks beautiful at night whether it is winter summer spring or fall yes i want to lay in the flowers and have a picnic and take myself on dates and love myself and know the sun and listen to them loving me as i love them yes i want to kiss someone tenderly on the head and be held in their arms and drive places we’ve never been under the wide blue sky yes i like nails cut short yes my body is good and worthy of love no matter what i feel yes i have dreams yes i want to remember them yes the autumn leaves and night wind i love yes hair will grow long and can be cut and grow again like flowers and leaves and trees yes i am clumsy yes i am delicate yes i am magnificent yes everything is okay no matter what i know or am it’s okay i can take a rest yes i can put on makeup yes i can be bare yes i will write long intricate foolish love letters yes i am afraid but yes i will become everything i want and choose

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girlhood
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every girl i’ve known was at least half hunger
and sometimes i think to be born a girl
is not to be born at all but to start the survival game
the moment you touch the world –
it is to have to learn to swim before you can even control your limbs

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aral is a nonbinary latinx poet living and studying in Canada. They love language and the sky.

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