Note: This poem is dedicated to anyone reading this who just starting to explore an interest in poetry. Having begun writing less than a year ago, it’s had an incredible impact on my life – Please go ahead and call yourself a “poet”, if you’re not already, and trust that the universe is leading you in the right direction <3. This is a reflection on how low, abandoned, and worthless one can feel, and how just one step in the right direction can change it all. 

ten years from now
when some one small
or hurting—
or angry—
or lost—
comes to me and asks

how’d you do it?

I know what my answer will be:
I started living
I started letting myself feel
anger and injustice—
love and support—
depression and melancholy—

all of it.

I began dotting my i’s with little hearts
let the hair on my legs, my armpits, grow soft
just because I could

brought plants into my spaces
let myself breathe in fresher air
new wind in my sails I arrive
when I need to

no more rushing

I allowed the ideas to sink in
that it might be okay, to not be okay
that sometimes good enough,
is good enough
that there’s nothing wrong
with being angry
when it is a human right
to feel a full spectrum of emotions
instead of intellectualizing every minute detail
of every spiraling thought

I opened my eyes
I closed my mouth
I refreshed the page
I closed the forgotten tabs that still tugged at the back of my brain

I stopped saying
there’s still so much I haven’t done
and instead
that there’s still so much I get to do.

and that shift in perspective is what I hope to offer.

when someone asks how I did it, I’ll tell them–

I just started.