for teenage girls

every time I pace the hospital floors

they up the dosage on an empty bottle.

you ask for extra smalls and 00's 

and they burn your waistlines like sandpaper

but make your mirrors feel safe.

you search for cures in public bathrooms

and along the hems of dresses that will never know your knees.

but the shirts were never as low as your self-esteems.

you pray for solutions in some boy's motorcycle-eyes

but they never have an extra helmet.

you offer to be their midnight solutions,

but they become your 8am mistakes.

you can't change your shoe size

or how many verbs roll from your tongue to your legs.

but get on your legs 

before bad attitudes turn into broken hearts

and all your advantages get taken from you.

get on your feet

before boys turn you into a once-a-week lover

and you turn into everyone's bad idea.