Vanity Crypt | Teen Ink

Vanity Crypt

May 16, 2022
By Presley547 BRONZE, Austin, Texas
Presley547 BRONZE, Austin, Texas
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

There is a buzzing mosquito that no one has the guts to shush.

Mascara stains plague the surface of little things

Lovely when applied,

Dreadful when smeared.

I’ve come to find that when you smear a good thing the paint dries

painting a picture with former problems in a new frame

These conversations are just simmering into interrogations.

Being a girl is starting to feel like a performance that I don’t believe in.

Coming of age,

Of age to act like a painted lady and flea a dull jubilee.

The inside of a shadow box is not as spacious as you think

And being glued inside a snow globe is not all glitter

Just a tasteful pool of acetone.

Please don't tap on my fishtank.

There’s no medical diagnosis for being perceived,

I hope the world can see

That internal sentiment means more than a pretty face ever could,

And nothing can be the only everything to someone.

I’m afraid I can only guarantee a dragonfly

In all honesty, there are some forms of rhopalocera I don’t care to be

What do you think?

I’m sorry

Goodbye


The author's comments:

This whole poem is about being perceived as a girl, and a pretty girl at that, by certain people. the references to "rhopalocera" aka a butterfly just represent how when your feel seen you feel like you need to flee. Lines 11-14 reference how being a girl can feel like you are inside of a shadowbox and it's not pleasant to me picked apart. Whenever you are seen as close to perfect people like to tear that down and find all the unpleasant things about you. Snow globes, fishtanks, and shadowboxes all share a few things; Your supposed to look at these things and it's supposed to be beautiful and see-through. Unlike ordinary things, these things usually imply depth, so you observe for deeper things. Perfection is not a real thing, and to add, the outlook of it is overrated. Nothing can be the only everything to someone. Putting yourself in the hierarchy is just tearing you apart further. The golden standard should not be measurable, especially since it changes so often. A dragonfly surpasses a butterflies beauty in it's own way, but the two should not be compared in the first place. With the line "What do you think?" it wraps everything up in a nice bow and sort of explaining how after saying all this, I still care what everyone thinks. I still wound up in this vanity crypt because I care so genuinely about what the world, and the people I hold closest, think.


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