I am here for you,
with you every moment of every day.
Your every wish is my command
(though my requests are rarely your wish.)
However hard you push me
I make every effort to keep up.
No matter what you put into me
I deal with it as best I can
(though it irritates you to have to deal with me).
I come from a source so mystifyingly powerful,
you humans can only imagine at the magic of it.
I am so amazingly talented, hard-working and complex
you humans may never come to fully understand me.
But my exposure is one that causes deep shame.
Nobody wants to see me.
Why?
I am so unique and special,
your greatest gift.
And yet…
You despise me.
You flick through social media.
You watch the advertisements on the tv and
you decide I’m not good enough for you.
You wish I had bigger boobs.
You wish I had perfect skin.
You wish I was different.
Better.
You wish you could trade me in for an upgrade
just like your crappy phone.
So you bleach my hair turning my perfect locks into coarse bristles.
You tweeze and pluck and wax the rest of my hair,
stripping my soft skin raw.
You starve me and abuse me,
pushing me until I hurt or break.
You drape me in the latest styles, squeezing my feet into high-heels that bruise my precious toes and blister my poor soles.
(Your soul is bistered too.)
You scrutinize me in the mirrors,
trying all angles, pouting and hip-thrusting and belly-sucking,
straining to match the image they tell you I should have.
I will never be good enough for you.
You hate my shape and size.
You hate that I’m flawed and imperfect.
You hate having to live with me.
You punish and abuse me,
most of all with your harsh words,
with your brutal condemnation.
Your intense loathing of me physically damages me,
stabs my insides with a knife,
violently chokes my voice
and becomes a cancerous monster within me.
And yet…
And yet I keep loving you.
Tirelessly I breathe life into you,
I filter out all the toxic shit.
I nourish you and communicate your ceaseless commands.
Why do you hate me so?
What did I do so wrong?
Why must I scream before you start to listen to me?
You don’t answer.
And yet…
No matter what I am your faithful servant,
Your loyal friend in life.
I am your home.
I am with you always.
I am your body.