Tuesday, 1 October 2013

This is a poem I wrote a while ago. I guess it doesn't need much introduction, so, here it is:

Pretty Girl

Pretty girl
Don’t listen to him
When he tells you not to take that sweet
Lying soft and tempting within your reach
Waiting for you to eat it
Don’t listen to him
When he says
“You don’t want to put on fifteen kilos now, do you?”,
In a mocking, joking voice
Don’t take him seriously
He doesn’t mean it
He doesn’t know it hurts

Pretty girl
Don’t look at her
When the example she sets is one
Buried under inches and inches of perfect,
Painstaking makeup
Hiding her flaws
Don’t look at her
When your friends say
“She has no imperfections, why can’t you be like her?”,
In beautiful, envious tones
Don’t take it personally
They’re not thinking
They don’t know it hurts

Pretty girl
Don’t pay attention to them
When they knot caustically into their cliques
Like swarms, their safety in numbers
Snickering at you because
You are different
Don’t pay attention to them
When they say
“Why aren’t you like us, why don’t you fit?”,
With sarcastic, acerbic words
Don’t take it as an insult
They don’t understand
They don’t know it hurts 

Pretty girl
Block them out
When they point perfectly painted fingernails
Sharp and faultless as their bitter voices
Not piano fingernails
Block them out
When they say
“What is she good for, why is she taking up space?”,
In lilting, mockingbird voices
Don’t take it on board
They don’t know better
They don’t know it hurts

Pretty girl
Above all, do not care
When the world around you is shallow as a rock pool
Anything meaningful reflecting off the sparkling surface
Waiting to blind someone
Do not care
When the world says
“Why have you come out of the mold differently?”,
In a genuinely confused tone
Don’t take it to heart
It doesn’t comprehend
That it hurts

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