1/24/2018 1 Comment To The girl who called me uglyTo the girl who called me ugly, I remember the day you called me ugly, I did not sleep well that night and threw on a hoodie and sweatpants hoping no one would notice the bags under my eyes, But you did, Instead of keeping your irrelevant thoughts to yourself, You just had to open your mouth, I will never understand why you had to open your mouth but you did, Why you had to insult me as if the devil took over your body, You said, Get some sleep grandma, That night I remember looking in the mirror with tears running down my face and thinking I no longer view myself the way I did before, All because of you, Everytime I see my reflection in the window I hope the glass will fog up, When I look in the mirror I want rip that devil off the wall, I see my ugly face even though I’m not actually looking at my own reflection, I’m looking at my reflection through your jack frost cold heart, I see the bags I need to cover, I see the pimples I want to erase like a dry erase marker, I see my small eyes that I wish I could photoshop My misshapen nose that I can’t change, And my chapped lips as dry as the Sahara, When I look at my hair, I see every splintering split end, Every misplaced curl and every snarl, I see my impartable part, And the tiny bits of dandruff that I should need a magnify glass to see, Thanks to you I see all my imperfections, Not just on my face, On my body to, I see my hippo thighs, My, wrinkled ankles, My twig like arms, My oddly shaped knees that look like an abstract painting gone wrong, And my six pack of pudding cups, When I look at chocolate I see deliciousness but I also see the number of jumping jacks to get rid of the calories, I feel like a star crossed lover I want it so bad knowing I shouldn’t have it , You made my life a constant battle, A battle with my mirror, A Battle with my body, And a battle with my mind which absolutely sucks, When I go outside I no longer see people, I see judgmental eyes staring and judging me, All thanks to you, But I also want to thank you for the one good thing you taught me, Thank you for teaching me not to judge other people on their looks because words hurt, I am more than my looks and I hope you see that, Sincerely the girl you made hate herself. Notes from the author When I was looking through scholarship websites I saw one that was a poetry scholarship, the prompt was to write a letter in the form of a poem to anything or anyone. So I decided to write an aggressive letter about the impact of someone's words. This piece was inspired by a day where I felt sick so I wore leggings and a sweatshirt and threw my hair up in a pony tale. That day someone told me I looked like I had just rolled out bed. The rest of that day I felt very self conscious. Although it did not effect me for days after like the poem suggests, it still affected me. However, I chose to write the poem about the long term affects of peoples words because sometimes it is hard to know how a few words will impact someones life so I wanted to create something that showed the power a few words can have. RevisionsWhile writing this poem it was a major work and progress. I wrote seven drafts of this poem in order to get it to the point where I was willing to share it. Every copy of the poem I would either changed a few lines or added a few lines. The main revision I made was my word choice and adding metaphors and similes and personification. I think by adding comparisons made my poem more powerful . For example in my first draft i said" Every time I look in the Mirror I want to rip it off the wall," and in my final draft it said "When I look in the mirror I want rip that devil off the wall,". One of the main section i added to the poem is the part that says "Instead of keeping your irrelevant thoughts to yourself,You just had to open your mouth,I will never understand why you had to open your mouth but you did,Why you had to insult me as if the devil took over your body," I chose to add this part as I was revising to show to add more effect of how words can hurt and also why there was no reason it needed to be said and also so the readers could see the anger it causes. One of my favorite revisions is the line " I’m looking at my reflection through your jack frost cold heart. " this is my favorite revision because personally I think it does an effective job of showing how the worlds opinions affect others.
1 Comment
Andy Schoenborn
1/26/2018 11:52:10 am
OMG, Lenae! Your poem is wonderful! It is so vulnerable and fierce - just terrific. I loved reading about the inspiration and your revision practices are clearly significant choices.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2018
Categories |