RESILIENT

You look at me from privilege
and make vapid remarks about my appearance:
how irregular my features,
HOW BIG MY EYES

Are you some scarlet-cloaked escapee
from an old fairy tale?

Do you think you can judge?

My jaw is misaligned from a heavy fist,
my skin blotched from burns,
and my eyes bulge from when my skull was broken.

See the ruby platinum around my neck,
and in my hair?
I still do well as a whore.