Mirror mirror - Oghenetega Grey
Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Who is the ugliest of them all?
You, my dear girl.
I am a scar of my mother's failed marriage.
A scar of a love that was never enough.
I stab at this scar,
Hoping It gives way to a new skin.
Hoping,
It births beauty.
My body is wrinkled in soot.
My stomach,
A dunghill of rejections.
Mirror, mirror.
Would washing off my color make me beautiful?
Mirror mirror
If I gift my body to strangers,
Would they fill it with enough love to make me smile?
Mirror, mirror.
If I wore my skin backwards,
Stitching it up with drugs,
Would my scar become a star?
Mirror, mirror.
If my body became a chimney,
Would my eyes remold this clay?
Mirror, mirror.
If I build a castle of colors,
Would I get a crown?
Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Who is the ugliest of them all?
You, my dear girl.
Oghenetega Grey is young girl that writes from somewhere in Nigeria. She spends most of her time painting pictures of the worlds within her in ink. Her poem "Wailing mother" was shortlisted for the 2019 Nigerian Students Poetry Prize(NSPP). You can reach her at ooffideh@gmail.com.