The Sun and Her Flowers Read Online Free PDF

one another
    to hold the dearest parts of them—their children—close
    they turned a suitcase full of clothes into a life
and regular paychecks
    to make sure the children of immigrants
    wouldn’t hate them for being the children of immigrants
    they worked too hard
    you can tell by their hands
    their eyes are begging for sleep
    but our mouths were begging to be fed
    and that is the most artistic thing i have ever seen
    it is poetry to these ears
    that have never heard what passion sounds like
    and my mouth is full of likes and ums when
i look at their masterpiece
    cause there are no words in the english language
that can articulate that kind of beauty
    i can’t compact their existence into twenty-six letters and call it a description
    i tried once
    but the adjectives needed to describe them
don’t even exist
    so instead i ended up with pages and pages
    full of words followed by commas and
    more words and more commas
    only to realize there are some things
in the world so infinite
    they could never use a full stop
    so how dare you mock your mother
    when she opens her mouth and
broken english spills out
    don’t be ashamed of the fact that
    she split through countries to be here
    so you wouldn’t have to cross a shoreline
    her accent is thick like honey
    hold it with your life
    it’s the only thing she has left of home
    don’t you stomp on that richness
    instead hang it up on the walls of museums
next to dali and van gogh
    her life is brilliant and tragic
    kiss the side of her tender cheek
    she already knows what it feels like
    to have an entire nation laugh when she speaks
    she is more than our punctuation and language
    we might be able to paint pictures and write stories
    but she made an entire world for herself
    how is that for art

on the first day of love
    you wrapped me in the word special

    you must remember it too
    how the rest of the city slept
    while we sat awakened for the first time
    we hadn’t touched yet
    but we managed to travel in and out
    of each other with our words
    our limbs dizzying with enough electricity
    to form half a sun
    we drank nothing that night
    but i was intoxicated
    i went home and thought
    are we soul mates
    i feel apprehensive
    cause falling into you
    means falling out of him and
    i had not prepared for that
    - forward

    how do i welcome in kindness
    when i have only practiced
    spreading my legs for the terrifying
    what am i to do with you
    if my idea of love is violence
    but you are sweet
    if your concept of passion is eye contact
    but mine is rage
    how can i call this intimacy
    if i crave sharp edges
    but your edges aren’t even edges
    they are soft landings
    how do i teach myself
    to accept a healthy love
    if all i’ve ever known is pain
    i will welcome
    a partner
    who is my equal

    never feel guilty for starting again
    the middle place is strange
    the part between them and the next
    is an awakening from how you saw to
    how you will see
    this is where their charm wears off
    where they are no longer
    the god you made them out to be
    when the pedestal you carved out of your
    bone and teeth no longer serves them
    they are unmasked and made mortal again
    - the middle place

    when you start loving someone new
    you laugh at the indecisiveness of love
    remember when you were sure
    the last one was the one
    and now here you are
    redefining the one all over again
    - a fresh love is a gift
    i do not need the kind of love
    that is draining
    i want someone
    who energizes me

    i am trying to not
    make you pay for their mistakes
    i am trying to teach myself
    you are not responsible
    for the wound
    how can i punish you
    for what you have not done
    you wear my emotions
    like a decorated army vest
    you are not cold or
    savage or hungry
    you are medicinal
    you are not them
    he makes sure to look right at me
    as he places his electric fingers on my skin
    how does that feel he asks
    commanding my attention
    responding is out of the question
    i quiver with