…  somehow people, all over the world, have become extremely made up. Often times, emphasis is put on the wrong aspects of life and attention is given to trivial things that really have no significance and/or bearings on who we truly are …

a vain history

chin raised, catching the light of the looking glass
contour lines harden flesh to look like bone
and brows grow robust outlined by stencils
eyes, heavy from shadow and false lashes
deciphering today’s face looking back

it’s blushing

but it isn’t warm blood beneath skin
it’s pretty hues of pinks and reds
mixed with bronzers and highlighters and shame

it’s all smoke and mirrors

if you squint hard enough
and think long enough
you can catch a glimpse of the original canvas
and its perfect imperfections
before paint brushes and colored pencils
overtook genetics and life

you can locate the cherry birthmark at the base of the jaw line
now nowhere to be found
you can sort of remember the pale, thin lips
now forever transformed
stained an array of kaleidoscope colors
lasting a few hours at a time

at day’s end there are cotton swabs
wearing the very face just removed
discarded
lost in a pile next to clothes
embroidered with names immigrant tongues cannot pronounce
and people skip rent payments to afford
just to say they own something fabricated for the stars

obliviously becoming
just one of the millions
forfeiting a piece of their waning chances
to be the only existing one of themselves

iron-clad in made-up faces
wrapped up in foreign labels
and stamped logos of approval
welcome to the 21st century
the Everyday Masquerade Ball
you must come dressed to impress
and leave yourself at the door

because somewhere along the way to this party
we forgot where we came from
the very cloth we are cut from
we failed to realize that before Alexander
the finest garbs were tailored for Queens
draped on royal limbs
and King Louis ruled a country
not a world of fashion

not a world defined by cosmetic brands and designHer labels
with an ever-growing army of boys and girls
determining rank by the hard-to-say names
adorned on fabric
and the hard-to-match colors
painted on faces
naive and proud to be in uniform
camouflaged
deftly recruited by the masses

items intended for the care and preservation of the highest
manipulated into a market
selling someone else’s idea of beauty
the constants in these industry equations
we are the sum of products
they multiply our insecurities
as we miscalculate our face value
it’s Economics, 101

we are merely walking dollar signs
a parade of advertisements

(you see)
we’ve come a long way from royal balls
from the esteem of being excellence
our noble bloodlines
diluted by culture and time
we’ve redefined our make up

but we are not other people’s labels and expectations
we are the same Kings and Queens
beautifully flawed
stitched together with good intentions
who unapologetically look past the mirror
never down on one’s self
lest the crown will slip and fall

so
hold your head high
young Kings and Queens
and let history repeat itself