If I could go back
I’d look you straight in the eye
brush your hair behind your ear
and I’d affect my best sisterly-motherly voice
Oh, poppet.
You are so bright
so strong
so brilliant
beautiful
and joyful
You will spend years mired in self-doubt
try to shrink yourself into nothing
hide in shadows
tremble at your power
catch your breath on salty sea air
let it dance through your teeth
gaze out at endless tundra
feel the coldest cold
whisk you up
almost steal your breath away
shout out
into arctic blizzard
sharp
biting
ice
wind
the kind of cold
that sweeps through
your hometown
makes you wonder
if you will make it home
on these empty streets
blink
climb up stone steps
worn from hundreds of years
of feet
you will sleep
under stars
your own ancestors have never seen
you will be a woman
so fierce
so brave
you will travel
inside and outside
of your flesh
whisper stories to yourself
in your sleep
carry songs
and potions
you will not understand
the words that come to you
you will feel yourself melt into muskeg
swat flies and mosquitoes
hold the tenderest berry
a lifetime of sunshine
pushed through earth
you will feel your bones
knit
across oceans
across time
and i know it is hard to conceive
as you tread back and forth
on these same concrete streets
year after year after year
but you are on the verge
of explosion
and you will find yourself
breathing in fire
and i am here to promise
that when you wake up
every
single
bit of it
was true
