A breakup is one of the absolute hardest things to go through. No matter what the circumstances are, it hurts like hell. Your world goes dark for a few days (or weeks), and nothing feels like it will be okay.
For a while, you’ll constantly be kicking towards the surface of the water, but no matter how hard you try to gasp for air, your memories will pull you right back under—and you’ll feel like you’re in a perpetual state of drowning.
If you’ve been through a breakup, then you know what it’s like to revert into your room and desire nothing more than to sleep the day away. You know that sad songs are the worst thing for you to listen to, but you do it anyways. And you know a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s won’t make the sadness disappear, yet you still try to fill the damn void with enough scoops to make you feel whole again.
But instead of sinking deeper down into the water, go to a local bookstore and buy this amazing poetry book called Milk and Honey, because my God, I promise it’s worth it. Rupi Kaur is a poetess that has your whole heart (along with her own) bound up in the pages of this perfect creation. Your body will feel numb after the breakup has crashed upon you. And you’ll feel incredibly raw. But when you let your tired bones sink into your couch cushions as you curl up to read this book, you’ll start to see the light breaking through the surface of the water above you...and slowly but surely, you’ll swim up towards it.
Here are 24 lines and poems that’ll help you get through it:
24. "but i was not made with a fire in my belly / so i could be put out"
23. "you were so distant / i forgot you were there at all"
22. "isn't it such a tragic thing. / when you can see it so clearly but the other person doesn't."
21. "You may want that boy / but you certainly don't need him"
20. "you were temptingly beautiful / but stung when i got close"
19. "you whisper / i love you / what you mean is / i don't want you to leave"
18. "i left because the longer / i stayed the less / i loved myself"
17. "if you want to know the type of man he is"
16. "i am a museum full of art / but you had your eyes shut"
15. "i had to leave / i was tired of / allowing you to / make me feel / anything less / than whole"
14. "falsehood"
13. "and you should see me / when my heart is broken / i don't grieve / i shatter"
12. "i am undoing you / from my skin"
11. "i was music / but you had your ears cut off"
10. "so we keep breaking one another / and calling it love"
9. "i don't know why / i split myself open / for others knowing / sewing myself up / hurts this much / afterward"
8. "to do list (after the breakup)"
7. "accept that you deserve more / than painful love"
6. "loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself"
5. "if you were born with / the weakness to fall / you were born with / the strength to rise"
4. "you are too late"
3. "the hurt will pass / as it always does"
2. "losing you / was the becoming / of myself"
1. "be patient"
