Can I Be Pretty Now?
its her 3rd birthday
flowing dress, pink ribbons
curly hair in mother’s clip
watching the big girls walk the streets
turns to her friend who she’s just meet
toothless smile from ear to ear
Can I be pretty now?
its her 10th birthday
hair in bobby pins and ponytails
to tame the curls she used to love
with chubby thighs and heavy arms
she see her friends all pencil thin
she looks to her friend she know for years
with a smile full of crooked teeth and metal wire
Can I be pretty now?
its her 15th birthday
red lipstick and mascara running down her face
straighten hair, her favorite shirt
just experienced her first heartbreak
she watches couples walk the streets
dreaming to be like them, like she used to be
crying to her friend the only one left
a broken smile she’s just able to create
Can I be pretty now?
its her 17th birthday
messy hair, chapped lips
crying eyes, and cut up wrists
bony thighs, skeletal arms
looking at the girls in the magazine
pleading to the mirror
with a smile she can only barely fake.
Can I be pretty now?
it would be her 18th birthday
But instead she sits up in the clouds
Looking down at all the girls and all the heartache
She see the hurt she sees the pain
The cuts and the bruises
The brokendown hearts and fake smiles
As young girls cry and plead to their mirrors
Can I be pretty now?