We have failed, haven't we?
Another wildflower
Plucked to be crushed,
Defeated, left to be dead
In the midst of a spring
Wandering about in full glee
Thundering colours of a wondrous world
That might have lost its sheen
On something - something -
We failed to understand.
On something - something -
I hope we do not always fail to understand.
Countless stars gleaming back at us
Was the perception of beauty,
A decade ago,
When you held my hand
And asked if my skin could shine
With some treatments
I have not heard of,
Nor did I have the heart to hear of.
We have failed, haven't we?
I thought I failed you,
Being born the wildflower I was -
Yellow-brown to the core,
While you 'dazzled'
In your whiteness
Like the sea shining with
Glitters on the waves
That passed by our feet
Every instance of our judgement
Not matching from the core,
As if my yellow-brown feet
Made the salty water a little murky.
I thought I failed you,
Being born the wildflower I was -
With my Mongoloid features
On my face
Flattening the roundness
Of the globe's standard of beauty;
I stood there
Watching you play football
With eyes that dimmed
With a smile that gleamed
Though with thin lips.
My hips though, weren't flat like my nose,
They rose to be curves
Like a mountain prostrating!
Objectification came in
Like a hurricane in the middle
Of a desert
Uncalled for. Uncanny. Uncomfortable
That it was,
I thought it was my fault -
Being born a wildflower I was.
Yellow-brown, flat nose,
Dimming eyes, prostrating curves -
I had failed you.
I had failed myself.
I had failed what Beauty of Spring
Stands strong for.
I was, after all, another wildflower
Growing in your backyard,
To be crushed, left to die,
Defeated,
For that Valentine's Day
You told me
I am not the flower that "shone" the fairest,
I am not the flower that could
Smell the Indian thalis well,
I am not the flower that could
See the seashells at our feet with my monolids,
I am but the flower
That could wrap up in hourglass dresses of pleasant shapes of beauty.
We have failed the wildflower
Inside me,
Haven't we?
Yet we go ahead and say,
"Hey! Spring is sprung
Let's enjoy the beauty
Of the world
Set by the yardsticks
Of photoshopped curves
And extended hair
And filtered skin
And magnified eyes.
Let's look for the flowers
We grow in our pots
And leave the wilderness to die
In the winters of judgement."
Yes, we have failed.
We have definitely failed.
For the wildflower in me is lost -
Lost in the rat race to "perfection"
While I never wanted to be in the race,
Yet the world judged me in this case.
Startled by beauty created by others,
I have failed at bringing my creation to the table.
Oh, the stereotypes!
Oh, the objectification!
Oh, the "normal" and the "abnormal" norms!
Oh, the hysteria, the hysteria!
The new normal changing
Every decade,
The old being tossed into a carton box
Every decade.
What on this earth
Is the new normal?
What on this earth
Is the perception of beauty?
What on this earth
Are the measures to measure my beauty -
Or the lack of it?
We have failed, haven't we?
Another wildflower
Plucked to be crushed,
Defeated, left to be dead.