Pretty girls wear makeup

My mother used to say

Pretty girls wear high heels and dresses and they always behave

My mother would click her tounge at my jeans and wrinkle her nose at my sneakers

Shoving lipstick at me while I played with science and beakers

And when I showed her my A's she'd shrug her shoulders and ask about boys

Insisting I treat them like toys

She didn't understand true love or the importance of education

She preferred talk of clothes

She took me to the dermatologist

But forgot my doctors appointments

My friends stopped coming over but the mascara blinded her from my depression

I sank lower and lower till my lungs had compression

I bought  a pack of razors and slid them across my skin

One night I stood on the railing of the roof the cool breeze teasing tendrils of my hair a caress from my kin

I jumped

Pretty girls wear makeup

But smart girls wear diplomas

Guess a diploma wasn't nice enough for mother

-c.m.