When Your Daughter Asks You

By Sudhalekshmi M

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty

On an evening

Back from school,

On her messy strands,

Tired eyes and shabby clothes,

Pause your chores,

Look deep

Into her twinkling eyes,

Tuck her loose strands

Behind her ears

And tell her

She’s beautiful,

Tell her that

There are a million words

Out there

Like pretty, cute and nice,

But that

Nothing compares to

Being beautiful;

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty

After reading about a

“snow white” damsel in distress,

Remember that it’s time

To teach her

About feminism and self love,

To read out

Poems of Angelou,

Stories of

Austen and Montgomery

And to replace her fairytales

With retellings

Of Gill and Solnit;

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty

After seeing the

Translucent skin of a movie star,

Smile,

Tickle her freckles and pimples,

Kiss her on her forehead,

Nevertheless,

Buy her lavender and aloe vera,

Crop tops and glossy shoes,

Tie them with a bow

And write to her

About the

Phenomenality of the space

That homes her in

And the divinity of her cycles ;

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty

After a boy plays

Peek-a-boo with her feelings,

Let her mend her broken heart

But tell her before

The sunset that

There are gentlemen

Out there too!

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty

Letting a thirty six inch

Glass define her,

Tell her

About the moments in life

She’d smell and look like

Nothing but

Hope, sunshine,

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty,

Tell her,

Tell her everything

You wished

Your mother had told you!

Magic, love and life!

When your daughter

Asks you

If she’s pretty,

Tell her,

Tell her everything

You wished

Your mother had told you!

By Sudhalekshmi M