incite x msu diversity services
Metalsmith
ART by SOBIA MAHMOOD WORDS by EESHA REHMAN
9
SOAPBOX
I hate how I am all too malleable to you The instant you tell me quiet Because you don’t like the sound My laughter becomes ugly My voice becomes deafening And the very reverberations of my whispers are unbearable to me The instant you tell me “You don’t look good like that” My face turns gruesome My form is misshapen My hair isn’t long enough to hide under and The mirror becomes something I am afraid of But the instant I manage to pull at the splinters of my self-consciousness Carefully puzzle them into the barest resemblance of a spine You treat it as dissent As though the very thought of me trying to turn myself into something I can bear Is disrespectful to you So back down I melt Back into molten self-loath I shrink down until there is nothing of me left in my flesh Tuck my will away into a crevice I’ve forgotten I let you hammer away Make me into what you prefer And let you remind me How lost I’d be without you. x
