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birdy Jul 2022
I could never love myself through the male gaze,
every part of me dissected into something that is nothing
objectified and dismembered into significantly insignificant categories
criticized, and ostracized from humanly functions
only to be put on display
as a mannequin.
Lacey Clark Feb 2020
cold, blue skies
with crisp air
and sun in my eyes
breathing deeply amongst the crowd
and I feel like an installation
in a hotel lobby
or a decorative vase
with dry arrangements
I feel so mad
the empty yet amused eyes
peering beyond me
while I'm duct-taped to this pedestal
while I'm nailed into a wall
while I'm the frame of a painting.
Stop ******* looking at me, unless you mean it
carmen Oct 2021
sometimes i wonder about the kind of girl i would have grown up to be if my trauma had never ceased to exist.

if i had never spent decades of my youth trying to mold my imperfections to the male gazes' views on what it meant to be a lady. 

would i still have lived in the sin that led me to the wages of death or would i have lived freely with the spirit of the holy that showered me with serenity?

would i still have fought so hard for the freedom and solace that had never belonged to the violence of the patriarchy or would i have sat crossed legged in a chair like the woman my ancestors would have rendered me to be?

would i still have let the boys that masqueraded as men, see the forbidden depths of my God given body or would i have clothed myself with competence and capability? if my trauma had never ceased to exist, would this version of me just live to be seen as an example of who i never wanted to be?
i wasn’t quite sure what i’d name this poem but it is kind of personal to me.

— The End —