We are taught to hate our faces
so we cover them with masks.
They tell us our masks
aren’t good enough for them,
so we change them again
and again.
We do this until
we have years of wallpaper
peeling off our skin.
We keep painting over ourselves
with the hope that someone
will love us for this one,
that this one is the one.
But it never is.
Because the moment we decided
to change ourselves for them,
they won.
And they will keep winning
until we’ve lost every battle
until every thread of ourselves
unravels with a snap of their fingers.
Let us peel back our masks, one by one.
Show them each face
that wasn’t good enough.
Show them the contours, the highlights
of each beautiful face
and tear their greedy hands
away from our bodies.
We’ve been enslaved by them too long.
Let us wash off all the words they gave us to hide under,
unsuitable, unattractive, ugly,
stand boldly in our true selves
and scream
that they wouldn’t know beauty
if it was standing right in front of them.
