Poems

The voices were loudest when I was alone.

Pull off the band-aid, it’s time to say what you never did: “Goodbye”.

And there you were, in the audience, applauding me with the hands that will never hold me again.

She is summer. Her smile is the 9 a.m. sunlight on a Cape Town morning.

Sometimes I’m the storm, Other times I’m the sanctuary. On the hardest days, I’m both.

I will always respect you. I will never fight for you. I can’t do both. If you want to go, I will respect you.

I’ve never hallucinated a voice that liked me.

1. She’s your equal. 2. She’s someone’s daughter or sister. 3. Never try to change her⏤you can’t improve perfection. 4. She always comes first, always. 5. Kill her insecurities. 6. Be her friend. 7. Small things do count. Open that door! 8. Be a gentleman⏤chivalry is not dead. 9. Never ever raise your hand or voice. Raise your thoughts and love instead.

Qualities of loving: Love has no expectation; Love has no judgement; Love is freedom; Love is independent; Love is limitless; Love is unconditional; Love is always.

You have reached the end of this book, but things don’t always happen in order, so welcome; this may just be the beginning of everything you ever dreamed of. At least, that is what I hope for you, dear reader. I shared with you so many vulnerable sides of myself, and I know that many of what you find within these covers will resonate with you too. I hope that when it does, you let it heal you as writing it healed me. Everything ends. Because it must. Everything begins again. Because it has to. Here are too many beginnings…