Dear Daughter

My daughter,

I was taught to Obey.

To follow and be told,

To be dictated to and to be led.

Never question,

Lest you be treated unkindly,

Never resist,

Lest you be left out in the cold.

My daughter,

I was taught to fear,

What THEY said,

What THEY thought,

What THEY had that I had not,

What THEY perceived in me to be valuable.

Lest I be an outcast,

Lest I be alone,

Lest I be unwanted.

My daughter,

I was taught to devalue me.

To think in terms of,

Usefulness to others,

Attractiveness to others,

The almighty opinion of THEY.

Who say, and who heard,

Those disembodied spirits of judgement,

Tasked by the devil,

To plant the seeds of self doubt and loathing.

My daughter,

I was taught,

That my happiness was a byproduct,

Of fulfilling all the things I had been taught to want,

Things that made my heart heavy,

And my head frenzied.

My daughter,

Forget the things THEY taught your mother,

And fill yourself with the joy of being.

Despite THEM,

and how they judge, and what they say,

what does it matter?

When their judgement is but illusion,

Their whispers like so much dust in the wind,

That they should feed on your sense of self,

Lest they be forgotten,

Lest they be irrelevant,

Lest they grow jealous of your rise,

Lest you become unrepentant perfection.

 

 

In response to Photo-Fiction 15 and for my Daughter.