there's been enough poems written about beauty

that by now you'd think we'd get it

 

by now you'd think that somewhere between the eloquent words

and passive-agressive statements

something would have changed

 

that industry would have stopped force-feeding insecurity

to growing nine-year-old girls

so that at eleven they could start hating themselves

and by thirteen starving, trying to "earn"

a body type that they were not built for

so at fifteen they'd be okay with destroying the only body 

they'll ever have

 

the world is set on creating holes in their souls

that cannot be filled with the materialistic muck

lining every eye-level shelf

     getting higher as we grow taller,

     a constant reminder that

     "we could be better"

 

i don't know at what age girls start to hate they way they look

and i don't know what part of the body

it starts with

 

i don't know if they first start hating the looks they get 

or the thoughts in their head

or if they even know they hate themselves

before the damage has been done

 

i'd just like to know when it's going to stop

 

because by now you'd think it would have