From Dust to Clouds (Aurora)

dear daughter,

if you’ve inherited my heart

then don’t be ashamed

of how desperate you sometimes feel

or how you stain sheets and shirts

that you are sopping wet

a walking hemorrhage

curious hands in the shower

the first menses of a young girl

a virgin writhing on a bed

you are on fire

you are like your mother.

so how could i ever talk about sin or damnation

when you have legs like creaking doors?

you welcome ghosts home

so i know you will know hell intimately

men who like to punch women in the face

who tongue kiss girls who look like their mother

men who hold you down, face in the mattress.

daughter with a soft body

the hardest ones will fall for you

and you will usher them in

seek out their sharp edges

the abrasion

and by the time they’ve finished

you will be bloody and sore

teeth marks on your thighs

your torso a burnt house of worship.

habibti, you do not deserve it but

you will be loved in fragments and fractions

until you no longer look like yourself

until your mouth is just the shape of his quiet name

oh my little girl

rip him out of your body

you come from a long line of women;

hawa who doused herself in petrol

ayan who pulled out her own teeth

khadija who fell asleep in the river

forgetting is the hardest thing in the world,

remember that.

 

From 'The Letter Your Mother Couldn't Write' by Warsan Shire

Done