I save myself every time I let my heartbreak.

I think without you, I’d be tethered to a version of the world encased in steel: cold & ruthless.

How can we allow the cycle to continue if we let ourselves feel it?

Since then, I've been in the rebuilding of loving and trusting the tissues I reside in. That's looked like letting in new hands to hold me and my sorrow, ones that catch all of me and expect no secrets.

The center of my ribcage grips for air at the pain that flows through generations inside me.

Blessed be these tissues who continued beyond that night 12 years ago, the cells that resolved to not let me die with my fractured spirit.

As we face the embodiment of empire, we can trust the ancestors who felt before us to guide our feet.

I love you forever, I like you for always, as long as I’m living, my auntie you’ll be.

Today, I celebrate each of us as we bleed, resist, birth, create; the world is better for each of us as we invite something new.

I can't feel it yet but I'm open to the possibility.

I carry you in the back of my heart, the place that most never reach.

Under the culture I was steeped in, I was taught it was my fault. My body was the problem, & the domination my punishment.

I wonder if it’s the stories, the one’s I assume everyone must know.