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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
True
Unwelcome
Body
Disappearing
Come
Belonging
Going
Longing
Things
Burning
Disappear
Shame
Beauty

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I’m overwhelmed. My biggest downfall is my brightest blessing, I feel too much, all the time. Ya Allah, if it’ll keep my heart soft, break my heart every day.
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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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And you tried to change, didn't you? Closed your mouth more. Tried to be softer, prettier, less volatile, less awake... You can't make homes out of human beings. Someone should have already told you that. And if he wants to leave, then let him leave. You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
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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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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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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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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
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You can't make homes out of human beings.
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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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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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You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
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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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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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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 am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.
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My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.
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