Think of your pain like a bunch of red roses, a beautiful thorn necklace. Everyone has one.

If you were a mermaid, you said, If you were a mermaid, I was the sea.

Maybe any love we ever have is an angel in whatever form.

The true warrior isn't immune to fear. She fights in spite of it.

But death is stronger than that and when you cover your eyes you are the one who can't see the dark. The dark still sees you.

I wrote poetry from the time I could write. That was the only way I could begin to express who I was but the poems didn't make sense to my teachers. They didn't rhyme. They were about the wind sounds, the planets' motions, never about who I was or how I felt. I didn't think I felt anything. I was this mind more than a body or a heart. My mind photographing the stars, hearing the wind.

This was not a fearie tale. This was not the movies. This was life. It hurt more. It was excruciating. It was excruciatingly beautiful.