She is young, too young. 
She cries when she sees me.
Those are tears of regret. 
She doesn't know how to hold me.
It doesn't come naturally, like everyone said.
A newborn and a 16 year old are not so different.
They both need to  be taken care of. 
But infancy is pleasant,
Because infancy is numb.

I am five.
Men come, then they leave.
Through with her, because they are through with me.
She cries when they're gone.
Those are tears of self-loathing. 
It is hard to find a man when you have a child who needs a mother
They didn't tell her fathers were so rare
A five year old and a twenty-one year old are not so different.
They both get too attached.
I don't know that she's unhappy
I only know that she stopped smiling.

I am fourteen.
Mom and I wear the same clothes.
And we both wear too much makeup. 
We cry when we're alone
Those are tears of loss.
It is hard to get older,
They didn't tell her that youth was so fleeting. 
A fourteen year old and a 30 year old are not so different.
They both want to be twenty-one.
We look in the mirror,
And somehow neither of us are happy with what we see.

I am twenty-one.
I let men see me as I see me.
And they never stay for long. 
I still cry when I'm alone.
Those are tears of helplessness.
Twenty-one is still not so different from five.
I still get too attached. 
I still don't like what I see.
But infancy was pleasant,
Because infancy was numb.