Fizzy dreams and broken hearts, latest styles
A young girl asks the mirror, “Am I pretty?”
Heartsore from her first crush. Bright sunburned smile
Shining eyes. Remembering, I pity
Her and that moment. “The mirror can’t say,”
I whisper, “Beauty is inside you.” She bends
this way and that. I want to yell, “Away!
Live this moment before the world descends!”
But no. She has all the time in the world.
“Come set the table!” Her mother’s voice grates
“I hate you!” she thinks, “I’m no little girl!”
But does as she told, slamming down the plates.
“What’s got into you?” asks mom, forgetting
She was once, not so long ago, fourteen.
This is a Shakespearean sonnet and here’s a very complete and somewhat annoying explanationof what that is. I write them because they’re easy and I don’t have to think that much about the form. I’m also not very fascistic about following iambic pentameter since English more or less forms itself into that rhythm pattern anyway.
Featured photo: Watercolor, watercolor pencil, gouache and lace paper on watercolor. My work. 😀
“Summer is the season of inferior sledding” - Inuit proverb 
This reminded me of my own years of growing up. Too good.
Thank you! I remember EXACTLY that moment. I guess we all have it!
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all. Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Yes. I remember that question. It must play on a loop in the XX DNA… It isn’t until much later that the question and the answer become unimportant! I love the poem – a truth lurks there that transcends time!
I think it’s part of being female (or male in the case of birds). The animal we are wants to attract a mate so we fulfill the prime directive 🙂
ah, yes. that in-between when we are just discovering ourselves and no one sees us the way we do, and we may not yet even see ourselves.
Yep. This poem is based on a day I remember very clearly. It was almost like a switch was turned on.