love is saying no
love is standing up for someone
especially if that someone is yourself
love is knowing when to act
and when to skirt around the edges
love is saving yourself
and giving yourself
love is sucking the poison out from another’s flesh
but only if they agree to show you the snakebite
love is never
killing the snake
love is giving that snake a place
where it finds it doesn’t need to lash out anymore
where it can wind through the grass
without fear
and know that the hands that enter its sight
will not cause pain
anymore
love is giving homes to snakes
and beasts
who felt their only way out
was through hurt
mob mentality works both ways
so save your mind for yourself
love is reading the fine print
because the headlines were never meant to inform
only to enrage
love
is not picking rage
anger is not a deep emotion
it lives on the surface
bubbling up from deeper
truer feelings
that don’t know how to exist in this world
like actual sadness
like actual fear
so when hate looks you in the eye
and your temperature rises
look inside for that sadness
that fear
the ones that just wishes the world would fucking learn already
the ones that has watched too many beautiful flames be put out
the ones that cannot begin to understand this hate
and then
reach out anyway
tori & her words 