'For women who are difficult to love' by Warsan Shire

First published on Shire’s blog, “for women who are ‘difficult’ to love” is a meditation on the power of feminine individuality, and how it should be celebrated rather than chiseled or “refined.”

This powerful poem is for strong-willed women who are used to getting their way. The woman who is terribly defiant and quite certain that what she says is (nearly) always true.

For women who are difficult to love

You are a horse running alone

and he tries to tame you

compares you to an impossible highway

to a burning house

says you are blinding him

that he could never leave you

forget you

want anything but you

you dizzy him, you are unbearable

every woman before or after you

is doused in your name

you fill his mouth

his teeth ache with memory of taste

his body just a long shadow seeking yours

but you are always too intense

frightening in the way you want him

unashamed and sacrificial

he tells you that no man can live up to the one who

lives in your head

and you tried to change didn't you?

closed your mouth more

tried to be softer

prettier

less volatile, less awake

but even when sleeping you could feel

him travelling away from you in his dreams

so what did you want to do, love

split his head open?

you can't make homes out of human beings

someone should have already told you that

and if he wants to leave

then let him leave

you are terrifying

and strange and beautiful

something not everyone knows how to love.