when you compliment me
don’t say i lost weight, like it’s the biggest victory of a woman
to lose ten pounds. don’t reduce me to a number.
don’t say i’ve gotten prettier, just because i put some make-up on.
don’t call me a sweetheart because you are lonely
don’t say, you saw me across the room and i caught your eye,
don’t reduce me to an object in the room
please stop undressing me when i walk in
as if i was nothing more than a dish you’d like to try.
don’t say you love me
because you think that’s the fastest way to get a woman into bed.
before you compliment me,
i hope you realize i don’t have self-esteem issues
because i’m not a size 0. i have my bad days,
but i love my body.
don’t judge me for something as shallow as my looks.
compliment me the way you compliment a man:
for his humor, his wit, his skills.
when you say you love me;
love me because i make you laugh, because i make your life
interesting, because you’ve seen the scars and you still want to
hear every story behind them. love me because of my gestures,
not for my figure, because of the way my eyes light up when i talk,
not for my looks.
before you compliment me, don’t think a girl feels bad
about herself all the time. don’t tell me i’m beautiful for my looks,
tell me i have a beautiful soul. that’s the lasting powerful kind.
before you say you love me, know i’ve always loved another.
i’ve been rebelliously relentlessly outrageously in love with myself
all this time.
and honey, that’s not gonna change.
uncoveringsimplicity 