Society

Society has carved into me, sculpting out the ten commandments in bone

Ten ways to hate myself now forever placed on my skin

Society did it slowly, through tv shows and children's books

The protagonist was always palm-sized, would sit in the open hands of nothing 

Their ribs like gates to hell, like keeping a beast in, where only roars of hunger escaped through opened bars

They hid themselves like cuts on their scalps like lip gloss in a skinny jean pocket

They concaved to fit its words, that first slipped down their throats then suffocated

Ego was a sin, self-worship ridiculed, deemed arrogant, and hung 

3 days didn’t resurrect my self-respect yet I did turn water into wine

Replaced hydration with escapism with drinks whose' after tastes curled up on my tongue

Betrayal was a useless word in my hands and trust mocked me with a disappearing act

The what if’s of things I can not undo,

Society plucked me from the ground, uprooted me from my home, and pulled every petal off with a smirk 

-Then society smiled and whispered at me to mend