25th on 20th

You are not a loser and you are not stupid.
You are not ugly and you are not damaged.
You are not “too emotional” and you are not weak.
You are not what you say to yourself while 3 am drunk, eyeshadow removed from your eyes crazy, peeing on some dirty toilet needy, waiting to go home introverted, crying in front of a mirror messy.
You are not the feeling the next morning either.
You are not your stutter, nor your traumas, nor your flashbacks.
You are not the “I hate you’s” you write in your notebook.
You are not what your abusers said to you years ago.
You are not the abandonment you feel when you go to bed alone.
In this cry for identity, take it all in, my sweet baby.
Most importantly, take this in.
If you know that feelings and thoughts don’t say anything about you, what makes you think numbers do?
So don’t you dare to define yourself with years you walked on Earth.
Cause you are timeless.
You are every woman who ever lived and cried and fought.
You are every tick of a heel, the pain of all cramps and the bliss of all those lives.
You are every person who did win over their battle and those who didn’t.
You are the scream of all girls and boys for help.
You are all the blood spilled and all the tears cried.
You are the remedy.
You are the laughter of all laughter ever shouted into the air, careless and free.
You are in every face, every sad eye, every gesture of a hand, every eyebrow unplucked.
You are in those blue bikes and the ball at “mahalla” and the flowers we pick for Shën Gjergj.
You are the ice slide at the school parking lot and the afternoons under the Tree.
You are the sherbet of bakllavë and the freshness of your mom’s homegrown vegetables.
You are the first flower of spring.
You are the Sun and the Moon and the stars all combined.
You are Allah and God and Jesus and the Buddha and every Holy Book.
You are all the physics laws and the chemistry of life.
You are all the curiosity cramped inside the gut of every mind.
You are all the words ever written and thoughts ever thought.
You are all the DNA of every person tangled into a mess.
So when I cry, I cry a lot.
And when I laugh, I laugh aloud.
When I walk, I keep my head high.
And when I dance, I swirl like a dove.
My race is human.
My eyes are all the oceans.
My legs are pillars of the Parthenon.
My hands are those of all the mothers.
I am this entire Planet.