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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: 37
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
True
Unwelcome
Body
Disappearing
Come
Belonging
Going
Longing
Things
Burning
Disappear
Shame
Beauty

More quotes by Warsan Shire

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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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It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.
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I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.
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Make love like you have no secrets like you've never been left never been hurt like the world don't owe you a single wretched thing.
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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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The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do.
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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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Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.
Warsan Shire
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You can't make homes out of human beings.
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My name is indigenous to my country, it is not easy to pronounce, it takes effort to say correctly and I am absolutely in love with the sound of it and its meaning. Also, it's not the kind of name you baby, slip into sweet talk mid sentence, late night phone conversation, whisper into the receiver kind of name, so, of that I am glad.
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I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.
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Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.
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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
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My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.
Warsan Shire
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Apathy is the same as war, it all kills you, she says. Slow like cancer in the breast or fast like a machete in the neck.
Warsan Shire
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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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I belong deeply to myself.
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My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.
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To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’
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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.
Warsan Shire