because she could've been legend
a fairytale in the flesh with a happily ever after
she could've been a star shining in the night sky
guiding so many wide-eyed children to their own impossible dreams

but no
she might've been destined for greatness
but we would never know

the dark hair that once tumbled freely over her shoulders
is now withered and thin
the eyes that once sparkled with fearless emotion in front of a thousand watching cameras
has been dimmed of its lovely gleam
and those skates that once graced the ice with so much passion
has been carelessly discarded in the back of a wooden cupboard
never to see the light again

but her body
oh, her body
was a work of terrible art
her skin was a galaxy of bruises
her teeth half-rotted and decaying
her bones more brittle than a sheet of glass

so she forced herself to turn round
with knives embedded in her heart and acid in her guts
to face the television where a child
with smiling eyes and smiling lips and veins filled with happiness
danced across frozen water in a sequined dress
with steps light as a feather
and fell to her knees
screaming 'she could've been me'

and as she sat alone in a cinema filled with strangers
watching a movie she did not even know the title of
the young starlet having the time of her life
on the silver screen
all she could think as tears slipped from her hollow eyes
down her sunken cheeks
onto the sliced up apple she had pretended was caramel popcorn
was 'she could've been me'

because once upon a time
a little girl dreamed of becoming an olympic figure skater
and an oscar-worthy actress
and she could've done it
if only her skin had been a little thicker
if only she would have laughed off the biting remarks
before she let the demons slither through the chinks in her armor