Blue Relief: A Collection of Short Poems

eleven

Stab

'She's very pretty,
She's been texting your brother and he
thinks he likes her.'
'Oh,' I reply,
A best friend's betrayal.
Hah. I try not to cry.
But the knife is to twist further.

'You know this is why,
You should be
happy you're not like
pretty or,
You know, extremely pretty
or anything like that,
Because it, well,
It brings you a lot of
well a lot of,
Problematic desire,
You know?
And,
When I was young,
when,
when I was your age,
I used to get a lot of this sort of like
attention,
But I used to hate it,
So you know,
You should be happy you're not pretty.'

Say this to thirteen-year-old me
as I try not to cry and try to
look down and hide,
To thirteen-year-old me,
So I can carry it permanently.