From the Collections
Poems
Excerpts from Natalie Halloway’s poetry. New work appears on Instagram first.
From Both Collections
“I can love the ghost and still leave the grave.”
“The cosmos never forgot what you were. Neither should you.”
“Sometimes freedom does not arrive like wings. Sometimes, you must take the blade into your own trembling hands and cut yourself loose.”
“The quiet is not the absence of life. It is its blessing.”
“Survival is not beautiful. But you are radiant, standing here today with every piece of evidence still written across your body, and still choosing to live.”
“My license plate still names
a place I once called home,
but I crossed the desert miles
because of you alone.”
“Not perfection.
Recognition.”
“You are not alone in the becoming.
I am there too.”
“Sometimes healing looks less like triumph and more like learning how to stay.”
“But not everything warm needs to become a scandal.”
“Broken souls can recognize each other on first sight.”
“Strong has become another way to say,
‘We noticed you were suffering but needed you functional.’”
“People will build entire homes from your sacrifice, then curse you for collapsing underneath the weight.”
“The cactus doesn’t pretend to be soft.
People do, right before they prick you.”
“Home isn’t the place that makes you stay.
It’s the place that teaches you how to leave, and loves you enough to welcome you back.”
The full collections are where these lines live. All in on Empty is available now; What Remembers My Name is forthcoming.