Love Poem: Artificial Traits of a Cosmetic Girl
Taja Bankhead Avatar
Written by: Taja Bankhead

Artificial Traits of a Cosmetic Girl

You think you know who 
I am, familiar 
with all of my 
flaws and 
quirks that reside in 
my exterior. 


You think you can 
read me so well, 
that if my soul 
were your bestselling 
paperback novel, 
then the pages 
would be heavily 
dogeared at the 
corners and wearing 
out with use. 

However, in reality, 
I am that paperback book, without the 
dog-eared pages,an overlooked 
but barely intact novel 
on the outside, containing worn 
and yellow pages that are 
threatening to 
let go from 
the spine of 
the book. 

But, you continue to 
be so oblivious. 

Your mind continues to swirl 
with a poisonous 
fallacy that my beauty 
in your eyes is real, 
without the artificial traits. 

Well the girl, the face 
you are so familiar with 
swirls down the drain 
each night, 
revealing all of my 
grosteque flaws 
behind your 
unspuspecting 
back. 

I don't want to hide 
the exterior of who I am, 
but I have no other choice. 

So, I will never be 
able to lay my head 
on your warm chest 
and memorize 
the slow, but 
steady rhytmn of your 
heartbeat, 
beacuse I cannot bear 
to see the flame 
your eyes die 
to a 
dim spark, 
when the beautiful girl 
you know rubs off 
and sink 
into the softness of your 
white tee.