why do you let me tell you how to live

let me tell you how to live,
because i am older and more experienced
i have walked on this earth longer and thus should know
the curveballs that spring from the indentation of nothingness
i have been through the whole gamut of loss, pain and failure
but not the suicide of a peer

let me tell you how to live
because i know
that wall you build around your self, the one u insist you cannot move
i know that you can and within you there is power

let me tell you how to live
because i am composed most days
even when my flyaway hair has gone amok
and the colours i wear are mixed from a wavering brush
and even though the flinging hurt that lashes across from uninformed surmises
and that hollow echoing of blank stares pit me against myself


let me tell you how to live
because i know you deserve a love that is undeniable in its certainty
a love that wraps your soul and snuggles up to your own faltering ego
a love that laughs along with your bizarre cartoon outbursts
and skips along with you in the middle of the mall
a love that sings to your heart even when the phone doesn't ring

let me tell you how to live
because life ain't about not having things to worry about or to feel broken down by
but by looking back and knowing you found a way out of the pits
and knowing that every single fleeting moment you can decide
you can choose
you can reinvent yourself
and be the greatest you that there ever was
and that that will be enough
for you, for him, for her, for me, and everybody who cares to feel

let me tell you how to live
because we all have our own ideas
of how to live
and even me myself my plucky I
wake up every morning just to learn a little morsel more
face my path, climb my hills
for that glimpse of dawn
and that breath of serenity

how to be a stiletto by pooja nansi

Give the gift of power.

Not just by rising up to heights, but by knowing
that pain can be overcome
with stubborn audacity.

Show that appearances are more important than reality.

The blistered, chafed parts of you
must at all times
be covered in sequins,
so that even if you feel battered,
you look invincible in all your glory.

Expose the seduction, spunk, spirit that's been
quashed by the lazy wandering of easy flat planes.

Remind everyone that safe
is not wondrous.

Gratification
is not the same as contentment,

and that gracefulness
has nothing to do with
ease.

Recognise that red is your best colour,
that you are a tool and a weapon all at once.

Harness your ability to keep someone
under your heel and grant freedom
from the same point
of your existence.

Walk sufferers of low self-esteem
enlightened into the night.
Make sure they wince
only once the music dies,
when they are safe
from the public eye.

Lead hearts onto dance floors.
Lift them into the promise
of the music to the understanding that

a life lived afraid,
and in comfort,
is no life
at all.