Poison
Words like knives flow like rivers
Rivers of tears and blood
It floods my mind
With misconstrued ideas of what is right
And that I am wrong in some way
In every way
They say beautiful
In an unrelenting, nearly religious mantra
Graceful like panthers
Or colorful and bright
Elegant predators
Poison dart frogs
Pretty, deadliest of them all
Deceiving, discrete
Painless until it morphs to an overbearing weight
Beauty hurts they say
Pretty kills
When I was clean of this disease
When I could tell truth from lies
There is also a day and place
One I remember far too well
Where the first of my light dies
The shadow of doubt sets in
Hidden behind a fanged smile
Claws painted in poisonous pink nail polish
Their target not skin or bones but the mind
Or perhaps the worst yet
The poison works its way into my eyes
Pools of golden stardust
Cut with blood
Watered down with tears
Mixed by society
Poisoned by pretty
And through these tainted eyes I see
A monster I have mistaken for me
But this is not reality
Merciful logic wakes
It determines that my eyes show lies
But it took far too long to realize
Why this was what I see
To realize that I was poisoned by that fatal word
Pretty
But there will be a place and a day
That I will break free of this cage
One day I will be at peace with my reflection
One day I will find a place within myself
A place where I can finally see
That I am free of the poison that they call pretty
Mirror, Mirror
Mirror mirror high on the wall
And I too small to see your reflection of me
Mirror mirror watch me grow
I can’t wait to know what other people see
Mirror mirror I’m almost there
I stand on my tip toes and stare
Mirror mirror so this is she
I am the reflection there before me
Mirror mirror am I pretty
The other girls at school say I’m not
Mirror mirror what is pretty
How important can it be
Mirror mirror I want to be pretty
Pretty like society says I should be
Mirror mirror I think I’m pretty
But the other girls do not
Mirror mirror why am I not pretty
I love my curls and clothes and golden brown eyes
Mirror mirror why are they mean to me
Why is it bad that I don’t look like them
Mirror mirror I tried to be pretty
I changed my clothes and tamed my curls and dulled my ‘just brown’ eyes
Mirror mirror I’m still not pretty
I tried in vain it seems
Mirror mirror I don’t like what I see
I don’t like that my reflection isn’t pretty
Mirror mirror I don’t like me
I wish I was pretty
Mirror mirror leave me be
The truth is too hard to see
Mirror mirror I can’t bear to see
The ugly reflection that you show me
Mirror mirror who is she
Who is the girl there before me
Mirror mirror please don’t tell me
That the girl I can’t recognize is me
Mirror mirror what happened
Where did any of this get me
Mirror mirror who even am I
When did I become so lost
My darling girl you were never lost
But poisoned by others insecurities
My darling girl let me show you what I truly see
For that deadly word was ‘pretty’
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 