Four Pink Songs

I.

Watered down ideas spilled onto teen mags

Leaving incomplete marks left to dry alongside impossible contortions of bodies

Blurred out by ageing creams, primers, pigments

Love letters to little women sitting in salons

II.

Half-grown breasts paired with pepper spray cans

Marching down streets bogged down by bags the size of cars

Skidding heels wobbly hips sun drowned bangs

Photograph of a papier maché doll, unrealistically beautiful

III.

Almond eyes, little feet, straight hair, accommodating jaw

Claws on walls to leave marks to scream “I am still here”

Crowds of crinkly women with backs bent form an enclosed space

To drown out muffled sobs in the rolled-up Oriental tapestry

IV.

Pitter patter of little feet tightly bound in pus soaked bandages

Squealing laughter, large hands on throats a game of playing rough

A love story of embroidery, tightly sewn, indestructible

Inescapable

Image by Nadia Benchallal, "Untitled" from Sisters Collection, 2014.