We prod and we pry
We starve and we pluck
We beg on our knees
And when we look up
Not a prize to be found,
No pat on the head
Just a sweet shove to
Get back on the bed
Or into the kitchen
Or behind the screen
To watch others conform
To standards obscene
Be thin but be full
Be blonde but not fake
And dear, little girl
Do stand up straight
Like a solider or slave
To the cross we all bear
My back is breaking
Is anyone there
We learn from the start
To say “thank you” and “please”
Cross your legs tight,
Unless on your knees
Making the world
Go round and round
Pleasing the boys
Up from the ground
That’s what power is
Tying someone below
Because when underweight
There’s nowhere to go.
Isn’t it funny
The things that we see,
The ads and the sounds
That planted deep seeds
“If you do as we say, and not as we do,
You get the cake
But can’t eat it too.”
I’m twenty five
And I have eaten the fruit
But Eve didn’t tell me
To spit after I chew.
Because the boy and the dream
The eyes and the claps
Proved empty and violent
And lead me to death
I’m wide awake
And I want to scream
“Oz is a nightmare,
It isn’t a dream!
The wizard is lying!
The white rabbit is dead!
Stop chasing the thoughts
That poison your head!
All the time and the money
And the pain I have spent
To conform to a world
That’s broken not bent
The pooch of my tummy
The lines on my face
Are proof of my life
I will take up the space
Allotted to me
In this one precious life
No more mirrors
I want a knife.