Contributed by Natasha Tolbert
“Look in the mirror,” a voice says.
What is there to see?
The voice says it sees a perfect and beautiful girl,
A girl it loves, a girl who deserves the world
“I couldn’t hate you,” the voice says
I know who could
“Look in the mirror,” the voice says again.
“See that person?” It asks
All I see is a broken girl
A girl no one really loves
Not even herself
She wants to love herself the way others do,
But all she can do is add more,
More scars to this already broken body.
A body that just screams,
“Please let this end,
Why won’t the pain end?”
Why?
Why what?
The only pain there is, is that of those who spew words of hate
Words hurt more than people think.
“Look in the mirror”
NO! I don’t want to
There is nothing in that mirror that screams,
I am loved.
There is no LOVE in that body,
There is no HAPPINESS in that smile,
There is no HOPE in those eyes.
Her eyes,
Those dead, dull eyes,
They used to be so blue,
Brighter than the sky
Yet softer than that of baby blue.
The eyes that have seen more hatred and pain,
More death and destruction than they should
“LOOK in the MIRROR”
Why?!
There’s nothing there!
Absolutely nothing
“LOOK IN THE MIRROR”
No, I won’t
“LOOK IN THE MIRROR”
I can’t!
“LOOK IN THE MIRROR”
Don’t make me do it!
LOOK.
IN.
THE.
MIRROR!
But she can’t,
Instead she just smashes it
Now, like her,
The mirror was broken in pieces
Only then does the girl look
Only then does she see,
The mirror was never perfect to begin with
Just like her,
Scratches and cloudy smudges
While this obscured her view before
She now sees what the voice was saying
She isn’t perfect,
But it doesn’t matter
Scared or bruised,
She’s still loved.
LIGHT or DARK skinned
She is BEAUTIFUL
She is HUMAN
“Look in the mirror”
You’ll see,
You’ll see the girl the others love
They don’t care about your scars and bruises,
They don’t care if you’re white or black,
Asian, African, or American,
It doesn’t matter who you are
Or where you come from,
You are LOVED
You are BEAUTIFUL
YOU ARE PERFECT.