Flaws

They told me I was dull.
My wearied edges,
Worn and weak -
I was crude, I was slow
I would be replaced.
So I sharpened it.
I screeched in protest
As they hammered my head
As they scraped off slivers of my skin, and slivers of my soul
They remade me into something harsh
With a knife for a tongue and daggers for eyes
I became too wise for love or lies
I slipped through like they were water
Anything
Everything
They told me I was dull.
A rock - plain and unremarkable
I was insipid, I was lacklustre
I would be forgotten
So I carved it.
Gritted teeth and clenched jaws
Through the chafing, grinding
I felt my body crack
As they tore me
Chipping away bit by bit
Until I sparkled
But when the light goes out
You cease to shine
Left empty and cold in the dark
To feel your missing pieces
They told me I was dull.
Time had enveloped me in a blackened shell
A mask of weathered scars
I was old, I was tarnished
I would be discarded.
So I polished it.
I let them corrode me, strip me, erode me
The liquid fire hid my silent screams
as it pulled my dark skin away
Exposing the gleaming
Bare truth
Raw flesh
Glistening painfully underneath
And I shone like new
At the cost of my self
My surface became a mirror, shining smooth and smug
They took my ugliness away
but
they also took my face