Because you had the tendency to listen with your mouth, I believe you underestimated my silence–my eye rolls and exasperated smirks as signs that you were winning or have won.

A pregnant silence with an audience is a fertile ground to cultivate your sly goals. In a world where you are king, it is spellbinding with opulence, loud, charming; filled with small talk just deep enough to feign a connection, eye contact held just long enough to create a mystery, a memory. You laugh at your vices because you know, if you wanted to, you could win over an unlimited supply of those who would gladly sustain them forever; puppets line your streets as if they’re lampposts whose only job is to illuminate masked insecurities. You are knowledgeable, intelligent, privy to the importance of learning, yet this is overshadowed by an exotic cunningness. You speak with a confidence that is dripping with charm, yet neglect to see how it betrays you as it confesses itself to be vinegar once it contacts anything that aren’t your lips.

A beautiful disaster.

But, in a universe of quiet power, one of sustaining milk and honey, one exuding the real and the raw, one understanding of those who wish to seek refuge of anything no longer serving them, one where words said command attention and not because the spotlight is sought–but because those words were necessary, especially when other’s voices are stifled; one where insecurities, hurt and pain are accepted and enveloped in solidarity, one where pretenses fall to the wayside for an indelible truth, one which embraces the cracks, breaks and tears as signs of the external ready to release the brilliance inside, in this world of unconditional warmth…

It is I who reigns Supreme.

You didn’t win because it wasn’t a game. I wasn’t a game. A game requires competition. And trust me, there was no competition.

Like a lioness, she watches the immature cub with exasperation as she wonders if he would ever be aware of a world where he isn’t at the center.

Yin and yang. Neither perfect, we existed, but never together even when we were.

Image: Jordan Richardson/Andrews

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Jasmine Herbert
Instagram // FAWF posts featuring Jasmine Herbert