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Jul 22
poem
QueenofDawn

They lied about Sleeping Beauty

She’s 2 years old in spaghetti straps,
still 
a fairy princess
who hasn’t learned
what they did to Sleeping Beauty.

Smiles sticky with strawberry,
muddy drip castles,
crayons and paper crowns,
sing the alphabet while you wash your hands - 
No.
Go home, girl, the boys can see your shoulders.

She’s 2 years old, 
but that’s 2 going on 12,
going on
first-day-of-middle-school and that skirt’s a knuckle higher than regulation,
going on
16 and grown men won’t take their eyes off you,
18, afraid at the college campus,
afraid
to be the one-in-five,
one-in-four
13, 19, 27%

2 years old, going on
Tumblr posts with S.O.S. hotlines,
first-time-being-followed-back-from-the-subway,
swallowed by the wolf,
hold your keys in your fist, don’t leave your drink, remember, long hair is easier to grab onto,
Red Riding Hood, swallowed by the wolf,

the superhero
in skin-tight vinyl,
wears knives like diamonds,
crushes kingdoms with cutting words,
but it’s her curves that make her watchable, 
the same watchable that labels naked knees a reason to close textbooks.

That turns hemline
into a meal for hungering eyes.

As if the hemline mattered.

As if
an inch of collarbone 
tastes more like forbidden fruit than excuses,
nothing she could have done
would have changed the way those eyes follow her.

The slavering lips
wrench bile from my guts.
It splatters onto white tile, hot against cold,
I know
what happened to Sleeping Beauty,
but it’s storyteller, not prince,
that makes me sick.
  • QueenofDawn's blog
  • Sprout
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Posted: 07.22.21
About the Author: QueenofDawn
"I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say." -Flannery O'Connor
MSG / CONTACT
RECENT LOVES
  • Sunset (at different hours in the day)
  • Wolf in Blossoms
  • Little Women
  • Lifeboat
  • A love letter to the universe
RECENT COMMENTS
  • It's watercolor with a little
  • I was having a lotta problems
  • Danke everyone :)
  • Thank you everyone! I did
  • :)

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Discussion

Comments

  1. Love to write
    Jul 23, 2021

    Wow, this is great! I love the rhythm of it. This definitely feels like a poem that should be read (you should record it!) And the comparison between different ages, showing how girls grow up with fear and how that changes overtime was really well done.

    Life is not a paragraph.

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  1. amaryllis
    Jul 23, 2021

    This is so powerful, and gorgeously written. I definitely agree with Love to Write that it'd make a phenomenal spoken word poem. It had so much voice I just finished reading The Poet X, and the way you captured this is similar to how Acevedo does but also very unique. This deserves to be published <3

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  1. Treblemaker
    Jul 23, 2021

    *stands. Applauds* So well written and you paint such a poetic yet truly realistic world we live in. Yes voice record!!

    "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison

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  1. QueenofDawn
    Jul 23, 2021

    Thank you everyone! I did write it as a spoken word poem, and I'd love to perform poetry at poetry slams or open mics, if I can find any near me.

    "I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say." -Flannery O'Connor

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  1. charvermont
    Jul 26, 2021

    I would love to hear you perform this! if ywp does an in-person open mic soon then you gotta be there omg

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  1. yejunee
    Feb 13, 2022

    *\(^o^)/*

    Yejun Park

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