The pressure hammers hammers hammers down on my head. 

Dreams of a different world drown me in bed. 

Images flash like screenshots, like the flashes on the cameras

That lie for what they capture when those images are placed

On a desktop dragging through space

To land on a site that defines who we are

Better versions of ourselves because that's what we beg

The world to see. 

Seeing has become overrated.

Lasik informs which latex prevails in random sex.

Silent sex since we don't know eachother

We are alone together. Competing, always fighting. 

To win best looking since you like what you see

And if you see me and like it you won't be able to fight it

That's as close to commitment as it goes

Though single is what my page shows

My show, starring me. Ha! You don't understand what you see. 

I'm green because I saw your picture with that girl

That girl I don't know and I can't make out--did you two make out--her face.

I couldn't see it under the layers

of shit we put all over ourselves.

The push-ups to push up our ranking on the scale

Accessories and make up that make up a new person

And now we've tricked you all into believing that in our hearts

We want to feel apart

From everything we were born to be. 

But, what if we couldn't see?

We'd have to hear.

Listen. 

Not to the music, the reminders, the beeping. 

Listen to my words and the truth they are keeping

In my words, I exist. In my words I am real.

Hear with my words to feel what I feel. 

A memory of the house my mother kept me in. 

Before I breathed the world, I was my truest form

Not a girl who has been torn

from the meaning of "woman" and the strength that that entails. 

Instead I see bodies for sale. 

Even when there's no price tag, the price is their hearts. 

And I hope and I hope that words will set me apart.

A parade will commence of girls who trust and love

Themselves. 

Have you ever made Barbie stand? She can't on her own.

A woman with that much pressure can't on her own. 

But if you line up all the Barbie's and all of Barbie's friends, you can balance them just right. 

And suddenly they can. 

What if we all stood like that? Balancing, limb by limb. 

Help to heal our hollowed hearts instead of our skin. 

And listening, GOD JUST LISTEN, to who you want to be.

Write it out and read it out. Forget artificial debris. 

We are here to be our best, that's not bullshit it's solid fact. 

Hear my words, provide your own, and here we'll make a pact. 

No matter what we see we will remember to hear

The words we say inside ourselves whose meaning is honest and real. 

You matter.

You're important.

Your purpose is strong and unwavering. 

Lena Drake