Barbie Contemplates the Concept of Beauty While Sitting on a Tin Can

You don't know what it's like, okay
to be manufactured, and perfect
like the way a painter's brush dies
with every slow cloud it paints
into the sticky sky. I was mint clean
once, pristine and pink with a perm
that curtsied like sundrops along the plastic
hill of my shoulders. My life was ready-
made sugar cane, kissed sweet
and seeped in pink lemonade.

My skin is falling off now.
I am naked and my hair is swimming in a sandbox in Wichita.

The last pair of shoes that I owned
were made for someone bigger, and I slept inside one of them
up until yesterday. I apologize for the mess...
I didn't make it but somehow I feel
responsible. If looks could kill, right?
Still, when the sun crests the silhouette
of trash that I call city skyline, I wonder

if the world ever moves at all, for anyone
or if it just smiles back politely
from the tiny stick-on mirrors in our bathrooms. Hell
I haven't had a good look at myself
since I found some shattered glass
slippers on the night I arrived.
I have never looked
for reflection since.

But every morning, I paint my toes and my smile
with the slime from melted red lollipops
and as far as I know, I am dead sexy.

Reviews

[Jasmine]

this is f***ing fantastic. What a great read! Your depth of insight and humanity is astounding. I shall be following your work closely from now on.

[p.kuhl]

Hey, thanks I really appreciate that

[victoria]

brilliant write, I must come back for another read so many nuances I'm sure i missed a few....much enjoyed

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this reminds me of Plath's "Mirror"---

the looks are gone...maybe the person has even tried plastic surgery to keep the looks..and it is sad...we worry so much about perfect outer appearance...what about inside beauty...

the barbie look...the ideal...or is it?

it's too hard to live up to that....for anyone...and it can really become depressing...

jacob

[Shmoke-Sifted Heftlande..]

I did a macabre barbie photo shoot once...the window installation was all set up near chinatown..i just had to choose the characters and the composition

I love your landfill version WAYYY better...it's like steven spielberg took over for john waters after an unfortunate accident or some sort of thing...the imagery is as dense as the rubbish in the "skyline"...a couple reads deep and anyone with half a brain is thinking and/or laughing way more than they were previously

unless they smoked some weed and the cat coughing up a hairball was the funniest, most profound thing in the world in that moment

but it's a moot point, because I see a tiki guy flower made of light and CRT stains

nice job there, buddy on this one..a real mind f**k to the sixth power

YOU ARE OFFICIALLY A REAL POET SO SELL YOUR WOODEN NOSE TO BARBIE BECAUSE SHE NEEDS SOMETHING FOR THOSE LONELY NIGHTS ANYWAY

[p.kuhl]

Hey, thanks for the feedback and awesome compliments!! I'm glad the poem moved you.

[Shmoke-Sifted Heftlander]

anything that sucker-punches a couple of my subconscious misnomers is ok by me..you're welcome, as well

[Sam Ingram]

I love this. I expected this poem to be blatantly attacking barbies and their effect on our culture's view of beauty, as many other poems and writings have done. I really appreciated the change in perspective and deeper meaning. Well done.

[p.kuhl]

Hey, thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I was nervous about that trope idea of Barbie when I started writing this, but I think the idea came across well, in the end.

[stephen dillon]

s**t that was intense

[p.kuhl]

Thank you? Hah

[Emily B]

damn!

[p.kuhl]

that's a good sign, right?

[Emily B]

oh, yeah

i don't kid

[KeelyJane]

This was a good read. Not sure of the meaning behind it all but still interesting and thought provoking. Thanks for sharing. :)

[p.kuhl]

Hey, thanks. Poetry is about what you take away from it, anyhow

[Shmoke-Sifted Heftlander]

it's a systematic dismantling/ecapsulating of delusions in brilliant meta-metaphoric form..super advanced.