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when I tried to meet outer expectations


She sits before a mirror with a face she cannot see

Feeling hollows in her skull where a pair of eyes should be.

And traces slowly downwards on the bony outer ridge

Of a gaping central vacancy where there ought to be a bridge.

And lower still she searches with her hopeful fingertips

About the pearly cavity for perfect crimson lips.

She wanted to be beautiful, a palette for her guise

The face she wore beneath it none but her could recognize.

And so she painted color on her alabaster bones

For her hollow eyes could not conceive a beauty all her own.


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