swanpinions

tolivealifeinflame:

My heart is made of starlight, of universes, of planets exploding and forming and blooming into and out of existence every second.  My heart is made of starlight.

My bones are made of branches, of beautiful, delicate tree branches.  There are thorns where my nails should be and leaves for my hair.  I have flowers at my joints and instead of white, my bones are brown.  My bones are made of branches.

My blood is sea water.  Rushing fierce, sea water.  Water that can be as calm as anything but angry all at once.  It is salty to the taste, just as yours is but clear, so clear when you cut me.  My blood is made of sea water.

My skin is made of book pages, of stories and poems and thoughts.  My skin is delicate and easily torn but you can see the words there if you look closely.  You can read the stories on my face, in my hands, on my arms.  My skin is made of book pages.

This is what I am, a creature not unlike you but so so different, so different.  Not something meant to be here, not for this world.  I am strange and lovely and so confused here, so lost, so lost.  So be kind to me, I ask you,. be kind and gentle and pardon me if I’m wrong, if I don’t work right.

Because I have branches in my bones and sea water in my blood, my heart is not made of the same things your heart is made of and my skin is not your skin. 

I am not of this world you’ve made, I am older, stranger, more delicate.

Oh. I love what you did with this image. I love it.

My heart, my skin, my bones, my blood, they are not the same as yours. And… non-human pride, to me, is being comfortable with not apologising for that. Not apologising for how I work different, want different, feel different. It’s not apologising for the fact that I don’t fit in. It’s not throwing away my own nature to try to fit in.

It’s not apologising for the fact that I can’t hide, even if I want to, because I don’t have glamour, I am too much non-human in all the places that show and so it is my choice to be proud or be apologising for who I am for ever, it is my choice to be proud or to hate my self.

I choose to be proud.