Buying Fair & Lovely, hoping the cream inside the tube would make me fair enough to be liked by my crush in school.

Fixing my teeth only to regret, years later, the twelve thousand I spent to look like someone I will never be.

Waxing my body for the first time last year to have silky skin like the women on Veet’s box but ended up with rashes instead.

Doing my eyebrows only to realise Frida was the most beautiful woman who ever lived on earth.

Moving my jaws like a camel chewing the cud, only to drop the exercise because it was exhausting.

Wearing only black and navy blue clothes to be mortified in pink and yellow now.

***

Failure. Like with decimals and fractions.

My body, now, is a temple
and I am an atheist.

Cover Image: Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash