If you grow up the type of woman men want to look at
You can let them look at you
Do not mistake eyes
for hands
or windows
or mirrors
Let them see what a woman looks like they may not have ever seen one before
If you grow up the type of woman men want to touch
You can let them touch you
Sometimes it is not you they are reaching for
sometimes it is a bottle a door
a sandwich a
Pulitzer
Another woman, but their hands found you first
do not mistake yourself for a guardian or
a muse or a promise or
a victim or a
Snack you are a woman
skin and bones
Veins and nerves, hair and sweat, you are not made of metaphors
not apologies
not
excuses
If you grow up the type of woman men want to hold
You can let them hold you
All day they practice keeping their bodies upright even
After all this evolving it still feels unnatural
Still strains the muscles holds firm the arms and spine
Only some men will want to learn what it feels like to curl themselves into a question mark around you
admit they do not have the answers they thought they would by now some men will want to hold you like the
answer
You are not
The
answer.
You are not the problem.
You are not the poem or the punchline
or the riddle or the joke. Women, if you grow up the type men want to love
You can let them love you
Being loved is not the same thing as loving
When you fall in love it is
discovering the ocean after
years of
Puddle jumping it is realizing that you have
Hands it is reaching for the tightrope when the crowds have all gone home
Do not spend time
wondering if you are the type of woman men will hurt if he leaves you with a car alarm heart you may learn to
Sing along it is
hard to
Stop loving the ocean even
After it has left you gasping
salty
So forgive yourself for the decisions you have made
The ones you still call mistakes when you tuck them in at night and know this
Know, you are the type of woman who is searching for a place to call yours
Let the statues crumble
You have always been
the place
You are a woman who can build it yourself. You were born
to build