shivalihp

It's been a long time since I have felt truly at ease with my friends

Since I've been able to laugh freely, smile easily, and be unapologetically myself

But now I have found people who make me feel accepted and celebrated

The days I wake up

and fall asleep

and move through the world

tired and clumsy,

it is hard to know the truths

of what I am grateful for.

Those days,

I am grateful not for winter,

I don’t like my name

not this one, the one I stole

from a great grandmother

I never met

the one I stole from

an Irish goddess

I can’t leave

How could I?

I love how my nose freezes off when I walk outside in winter

How when I go out in the spring, I sink in the mud up to my thighs

note: partially inspired by Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" 

        and  for my mom 

i want you to sit and stare at the glistening horizon. 

I remember the day you picked me out,  
A shimmer on your wrist, young and proud.  
The world was bright; you were full of dreams,  
With laughter and plans bursting at the seams.