"And shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons in my mane?" asked Mollie.
--Animal Farm, George Orwell
Her panties are thongs.
She is sexy as lard.
Her gilt purse is frayed.
She is tattooed and scarred.
The shops stretch for acres
with see-throughs and bows.
Synthetic her wants and
synthetic her clothes.
She hasn't much money,
but spends what she's got
on frail fishnet stockings.
She wants to be hot.
Ruby Rose, Lara Bingle,
thin-limbed and wall-high,
look down on this sad child
and croon "buy or die".
Pierced lip and smeared lipstick,
black hair streaked with green,
she flicks through the racks.
She is nearly sixteen.
Janice D. Soderling is a previous contributor to The New Verse News. Her poetry, fiction and translations appear in many online and print venues, most recently Magma Poetry (England), Twelve Stories (USA), The Chimaera (Australia) and The Literary Bohemian (Czech Republic). Now Culture (USA) nominated “Cock-of-the-Walk” to Sundress Best of the Net.
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