You Shall Be Born

"Sheer experience had already taught her that, in some circumstances, there was one thing better than to lead a good life, and that was to be saved from leading any life whatever. Like all who have been previsioned by suffering, she could, in the words of M. Sully-Prudhomme, hear a penal sentence in the fiat, `You shall be born....." - Tess of the D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

"You shall be born"
Echoes like a penal sentence.
The perfect circle of your eye
Warped with every tear you cry.

Arbus, Emin tear
The truths from the pretty canvas lent.
Forbidden fruit to propriety
This seedy scene of reality.

Marilyn scratch it out.
The celluloid sucked upon your soul.
Left nothing of the real you
Just an image too good to be true.

Sylvia cut down cold
Intelligence as a disease.
Conscience slave to perfection
An unforgiving companion.

Hardy rip through youth.
Your maidens doomed to their amour.
Trapped in precious, pallid skin.
Cursed to beckon unto men.

Caged flesh and mind an awkward pill
So paint on a vulgar pretence.
"You shall be born" yet still
Echoes like a penal sentence.