A young girl, dawned in a butter yellow

With glitter on her eyelashes and paint on her lips

Pushed up onto stage hardly before she even knows how to say no

The bright lights beat down upon her startled face

She completes the act, hardly

And all of the score cards read numbers that will later define her existence

 

The same girl

15 years later, stands up on a very different stage

Yet one that rings all too familiar

And her eyelids are now doused with layer after layer of shadow

Her lips have been injected with serum

And her body feels as though it is not her own

She completes the act, fully

And all of the score cards read less than what the was expecting

 

A young girl, who rushes down to her mother

With the glitter running down her face

And sobs shaking her tiny body

Asks to never do it again

But her mother, strikes her hard across the face

And tells her daughter to pull herself together

 

The same girl

15 years later, steps back on stage to take the flowers and the crown

But nothing is really different now

She smiles widely and feigns a small wave

As long as this cycle continues, her self-worth based off numbers

The future looks grave