how would darwin feel about facetune?

ONE

and once in a while
the girl who floats around
wearing rosé lips and champagne
eyes

would pause to reveal
a grand piano where teeth
should be, a sheet music
giggle

a girl four percent less
perfect winces every
time she smiles
and frat boys hold back tears
when she frowns

vogue magazine centerfolds
are hard enough to look at
in those impossible poses
this one is spinning little
girls on the dance floor of
a lakeside family night
and trying to explain to
her father why there’s
fifteen of us on the deck

INTERMISSION

if beauty is cruel

perfection is napalm

TWO

i wanted to tell her that
she made me feel less
than human
and then i figured that
if she held dead still

(like one of those spray-
painted street performers)
in front of the mirror
she might just be able
to mistake herself for a
wax statue,

and that can’t feel very
human either.

one two