Paper Dolls
By Audrey Spencer
That's the best thing
a girl can be in this world,
a beautiful little fool.
-Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby
I.
My mother taught me
how to hold myself
like a swan's neck. Elegance
hides in sloping curves
Elegance always hides. I said
I have chipped myself away
like a nail-
the manicured surface
unspooled, ragged.
III.
Take your blade, core me
into summer fruit-rotten
and soft. You can't run
with ankles knotted in silk.
You must practice fluency
in a language of fluted crystal,
pearls shackling your wrist.
You can't hold on to fleeting
birds. Best just to snip
the wings.
IV.
I press myself between the pages
of a photo album, and I build
a home there. Once I dreamt
of starting fires with a single touch,
crumbling empires with the flick
of a finger. You must learn
to ignore the cold grate of regret
curdled in your stomach.
Don't touch the matches, darling,
unless you're sure you want to burn.
YOU ARE READING
Dark Horse
Teen FictionIs it normal for your parents to find you passed out in your bathroom from cuts on your wrist? Is it normal to spend a month in "remission"? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of Sophie's favorite things to do is forget. But that's exactly what...
