“She is five and she has only dipped her toes in the ocean. She wants to join her parents in the water but she is too afraid to go any further.

He is twenty and he has written since he learned how to do it. His friends encourage him to get published but he is too afraid of rejection.

They are thirty and they are still letting people misgendering them. They think it is too late anyway, even though it makes them uncomfortable.

All these people moved on with their life and try not to regret anything but do you think is it better to put yourself out there and risking getting hurt or wondering forever what would have happened?”

“The world, my dear, is not what you see outside your window. Not everyone has the skin the color of the moon
and lives in a cozy house. Some people have to fight for their human rights, others are pulled over by the police or worst killed simply because they are different from you. And what did they do to deserve it? What did you do to earn your privileges? People never ask to be different but if being the same means being full of hate, then fuck you, I’d rather be different.

Life is a lottery and just because you are lucky, it doesn’t mean that everyone is like you.”

III

“I wrote you a book but you only read the first page and thought you had me figured out. I undressed my soul for you and you laughed at it, like it was some kind of funny joke. And I’m still praying that you kept your heart to yourself, that you are still willing to give it to me. Love makes you happy until it makes you a fool.”

“Imagine living in a world where the world ‘straight’ was an insult and used as a synonym for stupid. A world where a girl can’t kiss her boyfriend without having all the eyes pointed at her and being called names. A world where it isn’t considered natural for a girl to love a boy and she needs to say that she does because otherwise people will assume that she’s in love with girls. A world where straight people kill themselves because they don’t feel accepted by the society and they considers themselves monsters. I’m assuming that you wouldn’t like to live in a world like that. So why do you let this happen in a our world?”

Giulia Colma is completing the third year of the three-year Bachelor’s degree in Modern Foreign Languages.

She is currently living in a small city in the north of Italy, where she spends her life binge-watching all her favorite shows on Netflix, drinking too much coffee and eating too many donuts.

You can find more of her poetry and prose at giulswrites.tumblr.com and you can contact her via e-mail at giulia.colma@gmail.com

Art by Nik Helbig.