"Beautiful and Stupid"

Mama, let’s start over.

Make me put down the brush and pen.

Discourage the art within me.

Teach me satisfaction,

And to enjoy the mundane.

Withhold just enough joy

that I never question if there’s more.

Teach me to rear children and keep house,

and to marry a kind, ugly man

who wants a home with a white picket fence.

I could learn to love Jesus, and Mary, and whatever a saint is.

Pray that they'll make me beautiful and stupid.

- Ophira