“Prize of the Beholder” | Teen Ink

“Prize of the Beholder”

March 29, 2017
By MK.Dao SILVER, Ho Chi Minh City, Other
MK.Dao SILVER, Ho Chi Minh City, Other
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

It is not in my interest to yet again disappoint you.
But here we are again, I am sorry.
This apology does not keep you trying to disfigure me.

Foolish, oh so foolish human, you try to
Twist and contort me, pose me into an impossible ideal.
Only when you need me do you take out

To show off to your ‘friends’ and to be gazed upon.
I know I’m just a trophy, a cheap thing easily replaced.
Only then do you visit me, trying to

Brush away my flaws and scrub me clean,
Wax and shine me all you want, 
As if that would somehow cleanse me

Making me clean and perfect,
How I once was. On the floor around you
Lay fragments of dust and cobwebs,

From the years I spent hidden on the shelf.
Remnants from your reckless voyage.
But remember - beneath my faux gold coating

I am just cheap plastic, not meant to last. 
No matter how you try to conceal it
How you try to fix it, things are the way they are.

Searching for your image of perfection,
As I become chipped and dusty
You further inflict your damage.

This way of expressing love,
Casting me into your perfect mold,
Whilst demolishing everything in your path.

Oh, how pitiful and foolish you look
Trying to change something that wasn’t meant to be
Is this how you are in every aspect?

You must realise that I am not unbreakable,
Meant to be bent and change but fixed in time. 
For how else can you love something

But to accept it as it is and embrace it
How will you take away the essence
Of love and expect it to be beautiful.

Look at what you’ve done, the pieces in your hands
Not shimmering and bright but dark and dull
A never ending series of desire for perfection

Has left you in ruins with the remnants
Of what was once good and pure.
It is your unquenchable thirst

That will surely shatter everything.
You are a changed man, now
Broken. This is the quest that will break you.


The author's comments:

“Prize of the Beholder” was modeled after “Monologue for an Onion” by Suji Kwock Kim


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