Perfect from Miles Away

Snow White is effing exhausted
She opens her window
‘cause she has seasonal affective disorder
And her therapist says she needs to get some fresh air
But she cannot exercise in a dress
So she skips meals to compensate
The dwarves are not worried about her
In the late morning when the men of the house are away
She screams at the birds and the squirrels
But from across the kingdom
It almost sounds like singing
She takes a midday nap
And dreams about castles and tall men
Who will strip away her pain alongside her undergarments
Then she wakes up with shame and sweat that smells like foxglove.
Snow White downloaded a meditation app last week
She writes down her feelings in a journal
AndAnd then showers them in marigold and sunlight
Mostly she waits for someone to call her pretty
Snow White is not technically employed
She organizes seven different closets,
Scrubs the floor until filth finds home on her palms and knees
She waits, draws a bath for, and reads self-help books
That tell her to unlock her inner-child
But all she can recall is a father who died quietly and left no fortune
So she longed for the man she did not know
Once upon a time at hot girl inspo on Instagram
Reels told her to cut an apple into quarters
And eat one slice each day
So she could lose all the weight
Around her thighs in 96 hours.
Four days later, she woke up on her bedroom floor
With eyes like frosted glass
Cursed the Apple instead of herself
Told the birds a prince has kissed away the sleep
Snow White waits on the dwarves all day,
She makes bed for Sleepy,
Switches on air purifier for Sneezy,
Sometimes she dreams about
Running out into the woods naked and dying there
She knows there is more to life than a body
But then she puts on a tight dress at midnight
And smiles for the first time all day.
My dreams have always been occupied by more beautiful women
When I was threw years old,
I wanted to be Snow White,
Small waist and porcelain White skinned
And happy I put on her dress
Spun around in a flurry of yellow and blue
And felt like the prettiest girl on earth.
Funny how we always put other women at pedestals
Looking for the fairest of them all
Like that is what matters
Outside Snow White’s window little girls wonder
Why she never leaves the cottage anymore
Some say she has been living happily with the prince
For years on the outskirts of town
A symbol of love after poison,
Others swear they can still hear her singing,
She sounds perfect from miles away.