“How far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps?”
Warsan Shire“The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do.”
Warsan Shire“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.”
Warsan Shire“all those nights with the phone warming the side of my face like the sun.”
Warsan Shire“Later that night she picked the polish offwith her front teeth until the bed you sharedfor seven years seemed speckled with glitterand blood.”
Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth“[…] but she cannot make him eat, like you.”
Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth“His eyes were the same colour as the sea in a postcard someone sends you when they love you, but not enough to stay.”
Warsan Shire“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.”
Warsan Shire“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.”
Warsan Shire“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.”
Warsan Shire“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.”
Warsan Shire