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Face Paint



Girls can never have too much face paint.

It fills our bathrooms

Overflowing from our purses

Mascara, foundation, eye shadow,

Eyeliner, lip gloss, lipstick, blush…

The list goes on.

And heaven forbid a girl ever forgets her face paint.

The world would probably end if we women were,

Dare I say it? Natural

For just

                  One

                               Day.



I knew a girl once, who never had a man

And when someone asked her why she was always alone, she replied

“I think, therefore I’m single.”

She didn’t wear face paint.

They called her the Traveling Train Wreck

And she was born old.

She was the one that your parents told you never to hang around:

The ‘Bad Seed’.

Sings in the dark

Dances alone

And knows she’s beautiful.



She told me that women were meant to be wild

To run free

We were not supposed to be tamed.

If a man came along that shared our spirit

And would run alongside us

He was worthy.

But we were never meant to be restrained

By the hands that we hold.

Or the lips that we kiss.



For the rest of us

The emotion, sexual, and psychological stereotyping

Began when the doctor stated, “It’s a girl.”

And at that moment

The clock started ticking

Breathing down our backs.



Sometimes when no one’s watching

I remove my face paint

And run wild

But not for long…

Because ‘Women are supposed to behave.’



© Laura Stevens 2007