Rachel's La-La Land (:

Seemingly Perfect

She seems perfect
No matter how you look at her.
Perfect smile,
Perfect hair,
Perfect teeth.

She’s the apple of every boy’s eye,
The perfect daughter all parents want.
Good looks,
Good grades,
Good behavior.

She seems so pure and so innocent,
No cracks on the seemingly smooth glass.
No bad thoughts,
No lying,
No cheating.

But all this is an act of a girl who wishes that someone
Will see through the carefully crafted perfection.
Fake smiles,
Fake laughs,
Fake girl.

At night she sheds it all and behind closed doors
She unmasks her fake self to reveal the tortured soul.
She weeps,
She screams,
She pleads.

In the confines of her room, she removes the make-up
And reveals the eye bags formed over sleepless nights of studying.
The formulas,
The coffee,
The dull texts.

All the things she does,
The layers of make up and the nights of no sleep,
All to preserve the perfection she created.
Mornings applying mascara,
Afternoons perfecting,
Nights not sleeping.

If one pays attention
They can see that her eyes are hollow,
No emotion,
No light,
No life.

But how long will it take before one notices
That she’s not as perfect as she seems,
That she’s really just an empty shell
Walking with a porcelain mask of perfection on her face.

Will it be too late by then?
When people finally notice is when
She finally breaks under the pressure,
When the smooth china mask cracks
And the mascara runs onto the white surface…

Rachel Linn Vera Braberry

Poetry is my heart's best friend. (: