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.
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 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDX EFXF XGHG XXXX XBIB XIXC BIXI EJXJ HXXX XDXD AXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,658 |
Words | 351 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Expiration date" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/145677/expiration-date>.
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