i thought she was a smart, blond girl
until she took the mask off.

until i saw her circle
woven from plastic bags —
a competition of fakeness.

she thought she took my crown.
i let her.

then it was her
who bowed down.

it’s hard to be pretty
in this anti-world,

especially when your friends
criticise sober,

especially when you feed your children hate,

especially when you try so hard
to rewrite the story
and scrub away the stinky blame.