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I know a few things to be true. I do not know where I am going, where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing.

Warsan Shire

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Warsan Shire
Age: 36
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Beauty
True
Unwelcome
Body
Disappearing
Come
Belonging
Going
Longing
Things
Burning
Disappear
Shame

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I won't glorify or romanticise heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living.
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Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.
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When I love, I love: wholly, thoroughly, completely, drowning in everything. Every glance can be a conversation, eyes just playing and saying what needs to be said. Silence is loud, and the air becomes heavy. I want you. I want all of you.
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Later that night, I held an atlas on my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world, and whispered, ‘where does it hurt?’ It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
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Every mouth you’ve ever kissed was just practice. All the bodies you’ve ever undressed and ploughed in to were preparing you for me. I don’t mind tasting them in the memory of your mouth. Was it a long journey? Did it take you long to find me? You’re here now, welcome home.
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Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.
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With you, intimacy colors my voice. Even 'hello' sounds like 'come here'.
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Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat.
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My heart is a flower blossoming out of my mouth.
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Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy
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I think in Somali, I cuss in Somali, when I'm afraid I reach for somali and this language is very rich, very filling. It's an unflinching language the crudest most terrible things sound perfectly normal in Somali.
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Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of the tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn't allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.
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Don't assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don't say anything you can't stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel.
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I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes on my face they are still together.
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Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women, kitchen of love, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy. Sometimes, the men, they come with keys, and sometimes the men, they come with hammers.
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We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.
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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
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My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.
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At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and never have been before.
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How far have you walked for men who've never held your feet in their laps?
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