I was sitting in that big fat chair

Legs curled up, book in my lap

Long blonde hair flowing down over my face

my chest, my arms, my hands.

My world was down to pinprick size

Each letter eaten up off the page

And at my side, my glasses lay.

Outside the pretty paper the world was blurred

By warm honey streaks, by 20/80 eyes.

I didn’t hear her approach

(earbuds blocking out the sound,

so that the only voice I heard

was that of a nameless narrator

knocking around my skull)

So when she brushed a silky tendril aside

And tucked it behind a ring pierced ear,

I jumped, surprised, book flying,

Scream hushed down to squeal escaping my lips

So as not to disturb the semi silent student lounge.

“Relax!” she scoffed, “Don’t be afraid.”

She smiled, fingers catching in my locks.

I grabbed my book, I pulled away

I shook an earbud out.

“You don’t have to hide, you know,”

Gooey caramel voice, a snake’s smile in my eyes,

“You’re too pretty to be under all that hair.

I have a friend, you know her too,

Charges little, almost done with school,

She’d be glad to cut it.”

I blinked, I scowled, I shook my head

Knocking her hand away.

“You’d look real cute,

not that you don’t,

With one of those Sidecuts, you know?”

I didn’t know, but I didn’t say

Instead I grumbled and turned away.

You say I’m pretty, gorgeous, cute

You say I should be seen.

But why do you stop listening

When I say I disagree?
Some of us have blankets,

Some of us have toys,

Some of us use masks and make up,

Some of us use boys.

She uses ink under her skin,

Metal in her face, blue in her hair,

To conceal her lovely vices.

So why is it so hard to see,

That for me, my hair suffices?

We wear our Demiguise cloaks,

our One Rings, our Stygian caps,

That shield the heart, the body, the mind

The things that make us shameful.

Say I’m pretty all you want,

I wanted to snipe back,

The day you give up your comforts,

Your concealing little lies

Is the day I’ll give in to sugary words,

And snip away the silken locks,

That I use to hid my eyes.