UNREAL ACHILLES HEEL BY ISABEL Magazine covers, photoshoots, Models showing off the latest boots, Books and movies, TV shows, Deep inside resentment grows, Envy for someone else’s thought, A model whose looks are taught, Hidden behind makeup, an altered mask, ‘How do they do it?’ All will ask. Erase flaws, hide fear, all go unseen, Make an unbroken, unafraid, copied machine, The same smile, the same face, Soon there opens a gaping space, The want and need to be someone new, Little do you know, it’s all untrue, ‘Look in the mirror, and what do you see?’ Someone new, don’t know who, but it’s sure not me. The reflection deceives, the reflection tricks, Dragging you down into the Styx, All have a weakness, all have a Heel, Just like Achilles, a spot you can’t reveal. You hear the myths, rumours, blatant lies, Forcing you to cower in disguise, Nothing is adequate, nothing’s enough, Even when the way gets rough, ‘Get over it, it’s just a phase’, But beneath the surface it’s a wild craze, It’s all an idea, it’s a fictional high, It’s an edit, a filter, a tremendous lie. Stop trying to play pretend, It never stops, there is no end, See through the edits, see through the polish, See through the walls you need to demolish. See that you’re perfect, see that you’re fine, See that you are one more unique design, Gorgeous, pretty, delightful, charming, See the human, it may feel alarming, See the beauty, outside and in, See the unbroken, plain human skin, No matter colour, gender, shape or size, All are victims to awful lies, How you should be, what you should wear, How to wear makeup, how to style hair, ‘Why am I different, why won’t it work?’ Everyone is imperfect, all have a quirk. Reality can never be great, never that great, Never that perfect, not free of hate, Never that dream you have at night, Of faeries and elves, just hoping they might, Be real, be true, it’s just words on a page, Pictures on a screen, filmed on a stage, Not real, not real, don’t feel, don’t feel, Don’t let it become your Achilles Heel.
MALVERN ST JAMES
GIRLS’ SCHOOL
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