I don’t feel handsome today.

I feel out of place.

I wish I had a bowtie

Big enough

To cover up

My face.

To remedy

This distressed scene.

I love giving compliments

To people on the street

I hope they feel good about them

As good as can be.

I feel insecure

And I want to be sure

that they don’t feel

the same as me.

I find beauty in the aesthetics.

And I bet you don’t get it.

I’ll take you by the hand.

And help you understand…

A few kind words and a smile

Can go a long while.

So let’s turn that frown–

Upside down.–

Because—- I am also the Class Clown.

I can make you laugh!

at the drop of a hat.

You’ll forget all about

what that person had said.

And now you will be with me

instead of inside your head.

Leo rising, Pisces sun.

A sociable, yet sensitive

beautiful and majestic

Person.

Vulnerability

The dictionary definition is:

“the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.”

Short and extremely bittersweet.

What it sounds like it’s trying to say is:

“Feeling like an open wound,

Bound and bruised.

Anxiety fuming throughout the body.

Sharing without conscious consent,

The state of being bent.

Bent on trauma….

Bent on love…

Having flashbacks of experiences in public and crying over feelings you thought you were over, on the shoulder of a stranger you immediately call friend.

Trying to be intimate, when all you think about is the person who hurt you the most, OR when you feel like the body your in is not your body and you’d rather escape from it than to have someone touch you.

Sensing danger around boundaries you didn’t know you had till you crossed them, now you have to go back and fucking talk about them.

Doing hard things, like explaining your history of abuse over coffee…..and trying not to choke on it.

…..But loving the fact that you could choke on it.

Standing on the edge of a bridge and accepting the truth that in the past you would have just jumped…. now presently forgiving yourself for it.

Vulnerable like telling your mother that most of your trauma came from her trauma–passed to you, through emotional abuse but still loving her despite the fact that your now in therapy for it..

Vulnerability is a powerful thing, don’t let it break you. Let it remake you.

When we find our buttons,
our hot-topic-shots..

keep pushing them…

until they become pushpins,

flattening them

into the poster board of your skin.

They are a part of you now.

Acceptance is subjective.

The most beautiful and the most painful thing: is vulnerability.

I love it. Don’t take it away.

Check out Bowtie on Charlie's blog here and follow her Instagram at: @ariesmooncharlie

Thank you again for the amazing submissions, Charlie!