Girlhood

• Callie Kirkcaldie, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2021

As a girl, I have not once been told I am Beautiful.
I know the word, the sound, the form,
Feel the shape on my lips, rippling through ears and teeth;
It has been breathed through my neck, down and over again.
A tiresome determination for me to believe a lie.

I have not once been considered a Beautiful thing.
Still, for all the deities and the saints and the girls-next-door,
Gap-toothed or eyebagged, skin-softless or hooknose,
In as sane an eye as mine, these flaws are true wonder,
Yellowed teeth laced with gold,
Scars peppered with memory and magic and growth.
Yet defects shine brighter in photograph than mirror.

Deep down, I know Blue-bitten lips never truly made me a monster.
Yet the ache remains.


Girls. we have not once felt allowed to live flawed,
But perhaps, in time... we will not have to feel beautiful, to feel loved.