These Monsters (not monsters) (poem)

Inspired by "Skinny Girls Bleed Flowers", a slam poem by Savannah Brown (here)

These monsters (not monsters) tell me to love tiny,

thin, pretty skinny girls,

whose collarbones stick from their loose shirts,

delicate like the dying branches of a tree.

These monsters (not monsters) tell me to only love girls

who could be used as sails on a boat,

beautiful like a tapestry of dead leaves

that crumbles when I touch it.

They tell me pretty girls bleed flowers,

that when their porcelain breaks daisies spring forth,

and from their empty stomachs, lilies,

sunflowers burst from their throats.

And I'm a swarm of aphids,

blood red, sucking the sap from the sunflowers,

so these monsters (not monsters) tell me not to fight

these voices I've heard all my life.

These monsters (not monsters) tell me it is worth it,

that beauty demands sacrifice,

these pretty skinny girls,

these pretty dying girls.

-Zero