Analysis of Expiration date



The lie,
One day they’ll all be done with her.
They all leave, time and again.
She waits for when no one will come at all,
When she is most in need of a friend.

She’s the photographer, not the model.
She’s the friend, nothing more.
She’s the advice, but not the feelings.
She's not the ten, more like a four.

Her smile is never real,
What you see isn’t what you get.
The mirror whispers to her insecurities,
She is her own greatest regret.

Time limits scribbled across her face,
Shielding the tired girl in her mind.
The walls of her heart will never break,
She grew tough and cold inside.

Way in the back of her heart,
Where no one is there to hurt her,
Her very own visions of perfection,
Drown the truth of her real character.

Childhood comforts are now idioms,
Secular acceptance ruined satisfaction.
Dreams seem unreachable now,
Without the perfect body, or complection.

She can’t see loved ones waving to her,
Off the coast of anxiety’s ocean.
She closes her eyes when loyalty is close,
Refusing to express her emotion.

Her love is confined to a potion’s bottle,
Placed in a cabinet of doubt.
An expiration date she chose herself,
False numbers on the side, whittled out.

When will she realize that's not what everyone sees?
A small child, crippled and afraid.
Through the beholder’s lens, they spot a queen!
Pity is a dangerous game.

She is blindly leading herself down a path,
Where no one can answer her call.
Look past the ideals of acceptance,
What they have, you have it all!

There is more to you than meets your eye,
Find a different lie to tell.
Beauty of the heart doesn’t expire.
It never has, and it never will.


Scheme ABCDX EFXF XGHG XXXX XBIB XIXC BIXI EJXJ HXXX XDXD AXXX
Poetic Form Tetractys  (24%)
Metre 01 11111110 1111001 1111111111 111101101 1001001010 101101 100111010 11011101 011101 1111111 01010100100 11011001 110100101 100101001 011011101 1110101 1001101 11111110 0101101010 101101100 11011100 10001010010 1101001 010011011 111111010 1011110 11001110011 0101010010 01101101010 10010011 101011101 110101101 11110111101 01110001 10111101 10101001 11101001101 11111001 110011010 1111111 111111111 10100111 10101101 110101101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,658
Words 351
Sentences 27
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 45
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 115
Words per stanza (avg) 27

About this poem

This poem is about the endless cycle of feeling like you’re not enough. The fear of being left behind, as if you have some expiration date hanging over your head.

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Written on November 04, 2022

Submitted by inmymind8951 on November 10, 2022

Modified on May 01, 2023

1:46 min read
86

Nili Hunter

I grew up in a family of 9. I am was the middle child for a long time (you know how it is ;) I use my poetry as a way to communicate experiences and emotions, as I find them hard to express with spoken words. Erin Hansen is my favorite poet... and I love reading just as much as I like creating stories myself! more…

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