I spent my days crying, praying
That you would stop kneeling to the toilet
Sacrificing for a thinner body
You would sell your soul to see your ribs
And I would sell mine, to see you yourself again

What happened to the days when your favorite food was mac 'n' cheese
When you asked for seconds and didn't weigh your kale, adding every gram to your imaginary rolls?
What happened to your smile, the childish laughter in your eyes
I'm waiting for you to come running around the corner
Giggling

Please, forget for a moment your scales
Your toilet worship, your laxatives and long walks
Let's play like we used to
Let's be three years old and play in the garden
I want to see you one more time
Before it's too late.

Here’s a true story:
I was walking home one day
You whistled over at me
But I didn’t look your way

“Hey Baby, turn those legs around”
Crossing the street, you looked me up and down
“C’mon, angel, let’s go get a drink”
But I returned a frown

I’m not your angel, baby
I won’t save your shallow soul
Didn’t hurt when I flew down from heaven
But it will when you rise from below

You can try to drag me down
But my wings burn to the touch
If you ask me what I think of you
I’ll reply “Not much.”

Don’t try to put me in my place
I’m soaring high above
Your ideas of my purpose
And I don’t need your love

I’m not your angel, baby
I won’t join your sultry soul
Didn’t hurt when I flew down from heaven
But it will if you crawl from below

I’m a strong, proud, woman
I was created to be free
I’m not yours for the taking, baby
See, I belong to me

Leap from the rooftops, a burning town
Jump off a tower, we’re coming down
Hold hands through fire, together fall
Jumping and blazing, we’ll burn it all

Lightning and thunder, pouring around
Flash in the distance, show us the ground
Liberty ever, flying and free
Stop them believing, dying for me

Watch as they injure, they’re nothing new
What if they hurt us, least we could do
Wait for the impact, death will appease
Never ask pardon, not on our knees

Battles are lost now, victory theirs
Make it our triumph, deny their prayers
Jumping they lose us, win by the fall
Watching they know we’ve defeated them all

The blankness stared with huge white eyes
Some kind of monster in disguise
It threatened me with unknown harm
And strange, unearthly cries

My words came scrawling up the page
They reeked with tears and dusty age
I weakly scratched for meaning there
But all I found was rage

A fleeting glimpse I almost caught
The creature taking form, I thought
My inner darkness then I faced
And saw what I had wrought

Fingers hard like rusty bone
It scraped my heartache out, alone
The verse seemed old; a hundred years
A wrinkled, deadly crone

This world is all an empty hole
Eternal falling, I descend
Into the dark depths of my soul
The pathless void that has no end

All blankly white, a blaze of same
Deadly joy that drinks my cries
My fear absorbed to feed its flame
No spot of dark to save my eyes

I’m crushed within the empty space
And powerless to resist
People here in this nothing place
Attacked for daring to exist

Oh lightning, split the solid sky
Make me flash some kind of light
Oh hurricane, come be my sigh
Earthquake, swallow the black and white

I name you Prometheus, for your eyes
And Aphrodite, for your smile
From your fiery sons, great wars shall arise
Your daughters Helens all the while
In love, you bring us the fire of the gods
Your children light it on the earth
Dare we, mortals, fight such terrible odds
As would then be brought by their birth?
Better, then, that your beauty perish
Or better that the world be torn?
Your face is a gift that all should cherish
Your fate, Pandora, cannot be borne

The dirt of dusty decades
Lies upon the lath
Beneath a piece of plaster
I found a photograph

They smiled from the centuries;
Those mysterious three
Sent the musty memories
A message meant for me

Sara’s grave is gone, I guess
So long since laid low,
Yet, despite her ancient death
She smiles and waves ‘hello’

I cannot tell Annie’s age,
The words do not say
The owner wrote only names
Her face has frayed away

The baby in the buggy
Lifts a lively hand
She sits between her sisters
Beside the shining sand

This will be the only piece
From the dust so brown
That preserves their memory
Once we tear this house down