I came today to solely pick up the milk and eggs

But leave feeling queasy in both my head and my legs.

This is such an innoent and frequented place

But all people suffer, unless made of lace

 

I stand here in the grocery store line

Looking around for an encouraging sign,

But unfortunaely, on the magazine that I see

Are only "pretty" little faces smiling back at me.

The problem, is that these are not their true faces.

We think they are but they're just random spaces.

We see the perfect, blemish free skin,

And think this is necessary to be pretty and win.

They have the perfect body that is skinny and bulge free

Which is assumed to be needed to get that special HE.

Teeth as straight and white as a newly pressed dress shirt

Are plastered all over the magazines for me to look at and hurt.

 

I look and compare myself to them

But just come up short, time and time again.

"Why can't I look like they do?"

I ask myself and probably so do you.

I know that we all wish and long to be

Like the perfect model that we think we see.

But really, that which we see is not,

It is not the true meaning of hot.

 

We claim we want to be defined as "hot,"

But those girls, who we say are hot, are just not.

They starve, purge, and pay, for the way that they look.

We treat them not like a person but a thing on a hook.

We place them on a wall to admire and stare

Wanting their outside; their body, teeth, and hair.

But what really matters is not that which is seen

What if for once, we were a screen?

What if people could look right inside?

Would we then still be filled with jealousy and pride?

The thoughts, heart feelings, responses and actions

Would then be the focus, not the other distractions.

Nothing would matter except what's in the heart

Not the makeup, clothes, or body art.

 

Too easily I compare myself to that magazine cover

And the world's standards of looks and a lover.

But in truth, I really have it better

I am who I am, my own unique letter.

No, I don't have Reese Witherspoon's gorgeous smile

But I have a life and without paparazzi can walk a mile.

No, I don't have Angelina Jolie's full lips

But I can enjoy a bag full of chips.

No, I don't look like the models at all,

But I look like me, and that's what I call

Enough to matter for now and forever

Because I can be loved right now by whomever.

I don't need to look like the pictures or have it just right

I just have to be me and from within, shine MY light.