She loves to draw

She has always - loved to draw

Giant trees and tiny stars

Dogs with wagging tails

And family portraits

Which we always frame

But most of all

she loves to draw girls,

always smiling

always beautiful

always blonde

and blue

eyed

princesses, superheros,

"just a girl"

when i ask her

who she is drawing

But then I see the way she draws herself

Brown and with tiny black eyes

harsh with

bleeding ink

and none of the

long eyelashes

or

pretty dresses

that the

other girls

seem to have

And I hear her talk about

how beautiful

blue eyes are and

how she wishes

that her skin was

lighter

And I wonder when these girls she draws

became more beautiful

than us