Poems/Short Stories

Mama, Am I Pretty Yet?

Sparkling amber hair tumbles down my back

The ends gradually fading to black.

Eyes, one chocolate, one caramel

Slowly watch the carousel

As it goes round and round,

The children's laughter resounds.

I stare at the joyful children

Wishing I could go back to when

I was carefree

Running into the sea

The ocean spray coating my face

My brothers and I treating life like a race

Of "Who could grow up faster?"

Which quickly became a disaster

As we all fell into a deep dark well

That slowly began to tell

That we weren't enough or worth it so,

Our separate paths we decided to go.

My plan went south rather quickly

And I began to feel sickly

As I focused on the mirror

It all became much clearer

I was not the girl I wanted

And that's when I was taunted

By life and all its cruelties

And all I wanted was to take the keys

To lock myself away in a tower

Until I regained my power

To look at myself and say

"You are beautiful in every way".

From that moment forward

My personality ordered

That the scale weigh on my mind.

Not long after, I began to find

Depression creeping in, telling me "It's time to sin"

I found myself in a downward spin.

Life swallowed me whole

And I began to scroll

Through hundreds of songs

None about thongs

As a way to disconnect

And possibly intersect

The horrible thoughts that dwell

In my mind and made me unwell.

It worked and I felt better

So I wrote myself a letter

Asking me to remember

That I must dismember

Any negative feelings

And bad social dealings.

They must be squashed

Before my child is brain-washed

By a ruthless society

And behave with utmost propriety.

She will be unique

And she will always speak

For what she believes is right

Even if it fades from others' light.

She will never have to look at me

With all her little might and see

A broken piece of stronghold wall

That once was a support for all.

She will never have to ask, with eyes all wet,

Mama, Am I Pretty Yet?

As I once did years before.