Born a baby girl,
they said with tears in their eyes
"She will be soft, and quiet, and beautiful."
They stared at her with undying love
knowing she would one day fit perfectly
in a mans trophy case.
So she grew and was tended to,
a rose ripe for the picking.
I say rose because roses are lovely.
Plain. Soft. Supple. Silent.
Her words had always been white crayon on blank paper,
mosquitoes swatted at summer picnics,
ear infections that invaded the canal but never quite reached the brain.

She was taught to dress all in white
and never speak up at the dinner table.
Opinions are for crazy people and so is any splash of colour.
She sat in her silence until her white dress started to blend into the walls.
Invisibility is a super power!
Just watch any action movie that wasn't made for little girls.

When lying in the dark it is tempting
to raise a hand to ones face.
See how no distinction can be made between a human body
and the air surrounding it?
Imagine doing this in the light of day.
There came a time where she could no longer handle the sight
of her own emptiness
and squeezed her eyes shut to discover galaxies
hiding beneath her eyelids.
She smiled and colours came surging through the cracks in her teeth.
Staining her white face
and her white dress
and her white walls.

Her Mother screamed and her Father cried.
No boy would ever love a girl they could see.
One with flowers blossoming beneath her feet
and suns exploding behind her eyes.
They mourned her that day.
Her silence was never supposed to grow volumes.

To them she died the day she came alive.