I’m short.

Really?

Are you SERIOUS?

I NEVER noticed!

Thank you for informing me.

I was hoping 5’ 3” would be tall enough

to reach the cupboard

Without standing on my toes

Or grabbing the stool.

I’m little?

Woah! This is so new!

Yeah I weigh 95 pounds.

I’m six percent body fat.

No, I’m not anorexic.

Thanks for pretending to care.

When I smile,

You see metal

Crisscrossing my teeth.

Metalmouth?

Traintracks?

Aluminum factory?

I’ve heard it all.

Yes, I do hate being brace-faced!

But it means I’ll have a pageant-girl smile.

So it MUST be worth the shredded gums

And inability to eat every time

They put new wires in my face, right?

Oh, I’m BLIND?

I didn’t know!

I thought having terrible vision was normal!

And who told you it would be okay

To take my glasses off my face

And put them on yours?

You’re smearing the lenses!

Hello?

I can’t find them without them in the mornings.

I kinda need them back…

Please???

I’d take them from you but I’m too short!

But just because I’m short

Doesn’t mean that I can’t dance,
And it definitely doesn’t mean

That I can’t kick you in the face

If you piss me off.

Just because I’m small

Doesn’t mean that I’m not strong.

And it definitely doesn’t mean

That I don’t have a heart

Big enough to pull you in

And suffocate your depression.

I may have metal

Grating against the back of my lips

But that doesn’t mean

That no one will ever kiss me.

And it definitely doesn’t mean

That I can’t sing

Or that I can’t recite memorized lines

Upon a stage in front of a crowd

Full of people.

Just because I can’t see without my glasses

Doesn’t mean that I can’t read

The anger and hurt written across your face.

And it definitely doesn’t mean

That I am blind to the ugliness

Painted all over the world we live in.

When I look in the mirror

I don’t see beauty.

I see my struggles and my scars,

My blank stares and my memories.

I don’t scare myself the way I used to.

I’m not ugly,

And I’m not beautiful.

I’m simply here,

I simply exist.

My body is what it is,

And you have no right to hate me for it,

No right to ask me to change it.

So shut up.