“My daughter is fat and black.
She doesn’t look like her siblings.
Even her brothers look nicer than she does.”
I’ve been taught to hate my body ever since I was young.
“You’re fat, black, and you have eyes as small as buttons.”
“Look at all the other girls. You’ll never get married.”
That’s why I had to get married before all of them.
I had to settle for the first suitor who came knocking on our door.
Nevermind the age difference,
How well-read he was,
Or his manners.
The only thing that mattered was to prove that I was beautiful and desirable.
I still can’t look at my body in the mirror,
Because I was brought up to believe it was disgusting.