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The Flame

by Belen Odile

For most of my girlhood I believed

To be in love was to be afraid.

Fear bonded two souls and thus this must be love.

I was wrong,

Deeply so.

To be in love was to be betrayed, it was holding your hand on a gas stove,

Letting the fire burn your fair girl skin,

The flesh melting away like candle wax

To reveal she,

A woman hidden underneath those baby teeth,

A woman, a firestarter, an arsonist.

Belen Odile is a 19 year old poetess, artist, and advocate. Odile resides in Texas in hopes of studying creative writing elsewhere. Mental health, equality, and RAINN advocacy are dear to Belen's heart. At 14, Belen founded Her.Period, an organization providing sanitary products to LGBTQ+ youth, homeless women, and survivors of domestic abuse.

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December 2019

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