Pretty

Pretty audio

1:28

You tell me to sit like a lady;

Hold a penny between my knees, pressed flat against my skin,

Like the bandaids across my nipples.

To be a lady you have to make it a surprise 

That you’re also a woman. 

Why can’t you just be pretty?

Hide both the parts of you that you think shame is tucked into -

Your panty line and bra straps, 

but also the parts of you that you thought were a strength,

Your shoulders, Hips, Thighs.

represent something else.

You see - you’re a poem, right?

And the metaphor is: your skin is temptation,

Your body is a test

And you have to help,

Why can’t you understand that you are the 

Sin in the mind of the beholder?

And dress pretty. 

You say you love me like a poem. 

Love how I rhyme. 

Love every metered beat of my heart when I stand in line, 

And look pretty. 

You tell me blood is beautiful ,

and love is hard, 

and hell is hot like a Texas day in July -

But I love you like a poem.

I don’t tell you outright that I love you,

I describe my childhood bed and

Insinuate that’s the last time I felt safe,

And I both thank and blame you for it

In the same breath. 

I scream in slam poetry,

And you tell me

Why can’t you just be pretty goddamn it?

Why can’t you

Just be a haiku?

5 syllable sentences

Then silence again.