Your daughter is ugly. She knows loss intimately, carries whole cities in her belly. As a child, relatives wouldn’t hold her. She was splintered wood and sea water. They said she reminded them of the war. On her fifteenth birthday you taught herhow to tie her hair like rope and smoke it over burning frankincense. You made her gargle rosewaterand while she coughed, saidmacaanto girls like you shouldn’t smellof lonely or empty. You are her mother. Why did you not warn her, hold her like a rotting boatand tell her that men will not love herif she is covered in continents, if her teeth are small colonies, if her stomach is an islandif her thighs are borders? What man wants to lay down and watch the world burn in his bedroom? Your daughter’s face is a small riot, her hands are a civil war, a refugee camp behind each ear, a body littered with ugly thingsbut God, doesn’t she wearthe world well. Warsan Shire
About This Quote

If I lose my mind, I am always reminded of my mother. She is always there to remind me that I am just as important as anyone else. That I am not only what is wrong with the world but that I can also be what is right with the world. That although I may not have all of the answers, life isn't supposed to be easy.

That you shouldn't always rely on someone else to solve your problems or make everything better. That life shouldn't be easy because it's supposed to be hard. That you shouldn't always rely on someone else to help you with your problems or make everything better because they are not responsible for your problems or your happiness.

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More Quotes By Warsan Shire
  1. With you, intimacy colours my voice.even ‘hello’ sounds like ‘come here'.

  2. How far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps?

  3. Loving you was like going to war I never came back the same.

  4. Your daughter is ugly. She knows loss intimately, carries whole cities in her belly. As a child, relatives wouldn’t hold her. She was splintered wood and sea water. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>They said she reminded them of the war. On her fifteenth birthday you taught herhow...

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