Before And After The Cut

They called her light Because they never saw the shadow They called her lucky Because the jewels were loud They called her beautiful And beauty learned To keep her mouth shut She left home young With a suitcase full of weather Too many eyes Too many rooms gone cold Words were missing Or they landed like a weapon So she ran Before her body could grow old The city opened Like a mouth of golden promise Every window Had a hunger of its own She learned to smile Before she learned to sleep there She learned the crowd Can make you more alone And before the cut She fixed her face And after the cut She disappeared Between the scenes She held her breath So nobody Would see the fear Behind the golden eyes There was a girl still hiding Behind the perfect light A storm nobody named They loved her on the screen They sold her like a diamond But diamonds do not cry So she cried off-frame Behind the golden eyes The night was never over Behind the velvet dress The body kept the score She was everybody’s dream And no one really knew her A rose behind a locked door Some favors came With invisible conditions Some gentle hands Were never gentle at all Some doors would open Only after something taken And every “yes” Felt written on a wall There was a night She never turned into a story There was a car There was a hallway There was rain There was a body Trying to leave the body There was a name She never spoke again And before the cut She touched her hair And after the cut She shook inside The makeup stayed The bruises learned To live where Cameras cannot find Behind the golden eyes There was a girl still hiding Behind the perfect light A storm nobody named They loved her on the screen They sold her like a diamond But diamonds do not cry So she cried off-frame Behind the golden eyes The night was never over Behind the velvet dress The body kept the score She was everybody’s dream And no one really knew her A rose behind a locked door Don’t call it glamour If the mirror has teeth Don’t call it power When she cannot breathe Don’t call it longing When a man with a key Turns every favor Into currency Don’t call her fragile When she had to survive A thousand little deaths Just to look alive Don’t call it scandal When the wound gets loud You loved the poster But you hated the sound Of a woman saying This was never okay Of a daughter asking What did they take away Of a mother laughing So the child won’t see How much of beauty Can be captivity She was not broken She was carrying flame She was not dirty She was buried in shame And shame is a thief With a holy disguise But it dies When the truth Looks straight in the eyes If I tell her story Let it not be pity Let it not be hunger For another fall Let it be a candle In the old machinery Let it be a hand Against the wall Maybe she was never What the magazines were selling Maybe she was more Than what the cameras chose Maybe every woman Living under worship Knows the cold That grows beneath the rose Behind the golden eyes There was a girl still rising Behind the broken light A voice became a flame They loved her as a dream But dreams cannot protect you So she woke up And called herself by name Behind the golden eyes The night is finally moving Behind the velvet dress The breath returns once more She was everybody’s dream But now she is her own life A rose unlocking the door Before the cut She was beautiful After the cut She was useful But somewhere Beyond the frame She was human And that Was the part They never learned To film