You're Rubber. I'm Glue.

~~Dear Bully,

It's hard to know who I am anymore.

My reflection does not belong to me,

My features slowly replaced with words.

They stick to me like glue—

“Fat,” “Ugly,” “Stupid,” and “Lazy.”

These words repeating each day anew,

Stabbing my insides like swords.

The face in the mirror is but a stranger’s—

Tear-filled, puffy, and splotchy.

Her spirit has been subdued;

Her eyes filled with doubt and fear,

With such self-loathing that is undue.

I do not know her, nor does she know me.

This face does not belong to me.

Your words have endured—

Stuck with me through the years.

To me, they’ve remained ever glued,

Until I did not recognize the face I see—

A face only recognizable by the tears.

This stranger’s face in the mirror

Holds her hands slowly out to me.

On her palms are written those words—

“Fat,” “Ugly,” “Stupid,” and “Lazy.”

Your hatred and jealousy she has endured—

Stuck ever fighting against the fear.

And with these words, I know her.

With these words, she knows me, too—

“Fat,” “Ugly,” “Stupid,” and “Lazy.”

These words bind the two of us together,

And as they bind she and I, they bind you, too—

For when I look in the mirror, it’s your words I see.

So, if it's not too much trouble,

could you please find some new words

to describe me, or even just simply

let me be?

Because the voice in my head

is beginning to sound an awfully lot

like me.

~~ Sincerely,

Your constant victim.

~~~

Art & Words ©Lena Folkert, all rights reserved.