Virtues

They say apologizing is a virtue, But so is honesty And honestly im not sorry See, someone else’s voice moved in to our heads, Took down all the posters Replaced them with an image of a girl were meant to mirror. It’s voice was a hoarse white noise that washed everything away Until all we could hear and see was the word “ugly”. So with shaking hands We started to Poke brush And shape ourselves into a different face With a shadow more vague than before. Maybe it seemed sort of nice To mirror the girl on the magazine With that face and that hair. Oh, that hair She is the one who is… breaking! Beauty is breaking! A skeleton came with a tag wrapped around the bone, Signed off her name to a deal And watch as we throw roses at the pain The way she obeyed, the way she changed. the business men then pointed at us and went “This could be you For a price” Every beauty advertisement was like a dash— You pause, and then realise something is wrong with you. We are expected to paint over ourself smear it over the bruises we fought for Because that skin will never be smooth enough Until we pay. But what if instead of painting myself, I paint what I see And I see a world That asked us to apologize Im sorry for the bags under my eyes and the frizz in my hair Im sorry for the scrapes on my knees and the hair on my legs But sorry for what? For not being your beautiful puppet? Sorry once made me smaller than I am. They say apologizing is a virtue, But so is honesty And honestly I'm not sorry