Hair brushed back,
collar buttoned up high.
It's not as much for show
as for hiding the scratch.
Am I ugly or pretty1?
There's no escaping this unmoving plague of a body.
Only a mood, a love and its pain that leave a mark on the skin.
I've long been wearing
doubt in front [of me], like a necklace.
Let all the Half-Ladies through.
Hair brushed back,
longing for ideals,
we bear the weariness
like peculiar prodigal childs
that would have come back too soon.
Defying the ordinary
I do it my way2
Since I don't want to be a big girl, I'll be
a little boy.
For each spit in the eye
a beauty spot blossoms3
Let all the Half-Ladies through.
Get a move on!
1. spoken in masculine2. the French barely makes sense here.
Something like "[if] I defy the ordinary, I do it my [own] way"3. though "grain de beauté" is a mole, "pousser"(grow) and "grain"(seed) can evoke a seed of beauty growing from each insult