carved into my brain
enduring the pain

etched into my heart
don't know where to start

thoughts forming in the dark
each trail leaving a mark

it influences every step
so many of which I regret

why was I never taught
that I too was someone to be loved?

my body worthy
even with skin so earthy

we do not realise what is instilled in us
something long needed to discuss

all we do is accept it as truth
never once questioned in our youth

now we blindly follow these falsehoods
but it takes a while to be fully understood

that those images burned in my mind
were from the beginning never kind

for I have been othered, fed a lie
am I but fodder? it made me cry

and now I simply fail to see
any beauty left inside of me