You Are Already Enough

You are standing at the mirror,
pulling at the edges of your reflection,
wondering which piece of yourself to trim away
to fit the shape of his praise.
You are tucking back the parts of your spirit that feel "too much,"
polishing the parts he says he likes,
until you are a statue instead of a girl.
When he calls you "pretty,"
it feels like a golden thread,
but do not let him use it to stitch you
into someone you are not.
You were whole before his eyes found you,
a complete map of stars and secrets
that needs no rewriting for a boy's approval.
His validation is a flickering candle;
your own light is the sun.

Listen, 
when the engine idles and the door swings open,
and he tells you to get in,
stay exactly where your feet touch the earth.
The interior of that car smells like freedom and leather,
but it is a trick of the light.
The asphalt looks like a getaway,
but that car is a vessel for a pain
that will echo through the years we have lived.
It is a heavy, jagged weight
that I am still learning how to carry.
It is a silence that will take you a decade to break.
Let the taillights fade into the distance
without you inside.
Let the dust settle on your shoes
and be glad for the stillness of the curb.

I know her voice sounds like a barrier,
a "no" that feels like a cage
when you are desperate for the sky.
You think she doesn't remember what it's like to be young,
but she remembers too well.
Listen to her.
Listen to our mother even when the air
between you is thick with static and "wrong."
Her heart is a compass that has already
weathered the storms you are just beginning to name.
She isn't trying to stop your life from starting;
she is trying to save us from the version of the story
where we break into pieces too small to find.

You do not need to be more,
you do not need to be different,
and you certainly do not need to be his.
The world will try to convince you that you are a puzzle
missing its final piece, but you are the entire picture.
You are already enough,
just as you are,
standing right there on the curb,
breath in your lungs,
safe and entirely your own.

Be true to yourself,
because you are already enough.