As I got older my body began to change
In a way that brought the opposite sex my way
However they only focused on my sleek cover
But never the pages beneath
The anger would boil over and I would just want to scream:
Don’t you dare look at me,
with your unworthy gaze.
You’re dirty thoughts,
are worse than if you dared to talk.
I’m not a show on the road,
so what gives you the permission,
to subconsciously take off my clothes?
Your eyes leave a trail of flames on the surface of my skin,
burning away at my dignity,
as you belittle me,
to nothing more than a sex piece,
to nothing more than a prize.
Little do you know,
my confidence is a knife,
Eager to cut you down to size.
What lies beneath this exposed skin,
this provocative figure,
my sexy sway–
Is a woman,
who won’t be downplayed,
By toxic masculinity on a rampage
The pages of this book will leave paper cuts
If you ever try to touch
At a young age I first realized I’d be judged by my race
Then as I got older and my body began to curves
Like the surface of the earth
I realized men would degrade my worth
And now my reality is like the sea
Vast large dark and deep
Salty taste like tears from which my eyes they seep
Because if feels like society has the odds stacked against me
Wearing me down mentally…
Depressed stressed anxious at best
These are the words scribbled in the pages of strife
In the book of my life
Yet you wouldn’t know
Because you judge a book by its cover
Maybe if we all took the time to read one another
We would be changed by the things we’d discover

Courts Parry