CXCI

TRUTH

You know me, God

And you love me, still?

You say forever you will

Though you know my words before I speak them

My thoughts before I think them

My praises to you, before I sing them

My sins, before I commit them

And you love me, still?

The pieces of me that I hide

The pieces in which I take pride

My greed and my ambition

My trouble with submission

The thoughts that are unkind

The idols I’ve enshrined

Every piece of me - you know them

And you love me, still?

I’ve tried to run so many times

Either with my feet or in my mind

Thinking it’s you I had to leave behind

Realising it’s me, it’s been me all this time

Realising it too late sometimes

After the hurt, and the rage

And someone else’s pain

Surely by now it’s all too late

But you remain, always the same

And you love me, still.

[Image: Isabeli Fontana, Russh Magazine]

CLXXXIV

I’d like to think my very bones and marrow are crying out for justice, and they are. 

But it will come. 

In its time. 

And until then, just let the simmering sadness and heat of hate wash over you, rolling, until one day they make you the person you were always meant to be. 

They’ll make you or break you. 

Let them make you, alright. 

[Image: Doutzen Kroes for Porter Magazine]

LXXV

Beautiful things don't ask for attention. 

There is a truth I will teach my daughters. There is a song worth singing. 

[Images compiled by Sibella Court for The Lane]

LXXIV

Life doesn’t work the way people lead you to believe. It’s not always an upward slope. Sometimes there are downfalls. Sometimes there are pitfalls. Sometimes there are plummets back to the bottom where you started. Sometimes you lose your foothold. Sometimes you forget the direction you were heading in. Sometimes you lose the war. That’s how it is. 

But only sometimes. 

And sometimes, you win. 

[Images by Min Nomchong via Summersite]

XXIII

Hang my locket around your neck, wear my ring on your finger. Love is invincible facing danger and death. Passion laughs at the terrors of hell. The fire of love stops at nothing - it sweeps everything before it. Flood waters can't drown love, torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, love can't be sold - it's not to be found in the marketplace.

(Source: Bassike, Song of Solomon)