20/30: “Body Image.”

One of the poems I wrote for our Word UP poetry and theatre production in December.

wordsinajar:

Everybody knows…
You can’t trust the words of your bathroom mirror.
So quick to crucify your imperfections
Against your insecurities.
So quick to pounce.
Always tells you your hair doesn’t look nice.
Never tells you you’re beautiful.
Never tells you you’re handsome.

That window you hang on the wall
That makes sure you don’t get too confident.
Because everyone knows…
You can’t trust the words of your bathroom mirror.

And all you really see…
Is the mask you put on in the morning.
A stitched together smile
And cheeks
Painted with all the pigments of your perjury.
Hanging your confidence on your bones
Hoping no one will ever notice
How much you hate looking like yourself.

Too wary of your face looking back at you
For not being arranged the way models are.
For not looking like what everyone wants to be.
But where is the acceptance in your honesty? 

Forgetting the fireflies in your bloodstream
That fly every time you do something you love.
Overshadowed by your lack of melanin
Your spine made of gelatin
And the styrofoam squeaking in your skeleton.
Struggling to bear the weight
Of their gazes when you pass by them.

And all they see is your mask.
The fake smile stitched to your lips.
Not the fireflies.