cents/sense

The advertisements on the television screen
Sell sex, beauty, creams
A pill for your misery
“Oh, you don’t look like a photo shop lie? What’s your alibi?
You should love your body naturally, but only if you look like me!”
I know you know
That there’s got to be
Much more than this
Somewhere
Somehow
I believe
we can love ourselves
With enough resistance

Please
Listen
We are a people ruled by symbols
How many numbers on your check
Will you let represent your worth
Please
Tell me
That I’m not just a body size
Or a dollar amount
I would gladly
give away my wealth
they said to lose some weight
so I lost the weight of the shame
wouldn’t let my name
be associated with this kind of pain

this is the day I chose
I use my words
And they will be heard
Over the calamity
Of a world obsessed
With attracting others for sex
Forgetting to use our hearts or our senses,

We’re slaves to a new master
No priest, no pastor
Can set us free
No religion will change it
Or free us from it
No matter how much time we spend on our knees,
Or standing on the scale,
Buying into a financial life
Forget materials and listen to your soul,
Control your movements
Don’t let the vessel destroy the light inside
Don’t let the darkness destroy the frame
Don’t believe a measurement
Will give you fame.

Steal back your soul.

This poem is about: 
My country
Our world
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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