1000 ladybugs

bella fawzi

Lately there’s been quite the 

ladybug apocalypse;

my days full 

of these creatures 

my gaze 

stuck on their spots, and 

I can love!

I love and I love and I keep on blinking

and yesterday I saw one:

it may have seen me 

it may have been me 

all I know is that

today I am laughing 

so hard my muscles ache - 

I’ve heard 

it takes guts to hurt 

it takes guts to love, but

1000 ladybugs 

would still do it softly 

and I feel my lungs expanding

now that I am my own breath 

and I’d give you 1000 kisses 

if there’d be just one spot left

for the next bug to land 

on your nose, making you laugh 

so you can feel it in your gut 

when you love 

ever so softly, because

lately there’s been quite the 

ladybug apocalypse 

and all I know is 

you wouldn’t want to miss out.

Bella Fawzi (Egyptian and Dutch) is a self proclaimed notes app poet and, secondarily, an 18 year old girl. Bella is an avid lover of nature, fruit, the moments in the margins, the moon and good conversation. Through her writing she explores the rawness of things such as youth, absence, loss, growth, awareness and the multifaceted phenomenon that is girlhood. 

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