“See This Girl” by Andrea Dietrich, tied for third place in Cyndi MacMillan’s Contemporary Figurative Artiste Stephanie Deshpande: Contemporary Free Rhyme Poetry Contest on PoetrySoup.com. Her poem was inspired by my painting “Assembling the Pieces.” To see all the contest winners, see related post: Contemporary Free Rhyme Poetry Contest.

SEE THIS GIRL
By Andrea Dietrich

See this girl in the painting, this skinny girl
working on a puzzle at the bottom of the stairs.
With big rimmed glasses and her plain brown hair,
she’s an ordinary girl, with nothing seeming special.

Now see this girl. . . really SEE this girl.
At age 12, she’s just been fitted with new glasses –
They are black horn-rimmed – an utter disappointment
in the life of a young girl.
Some guys now call her four-eyes, and they don’t even notice
the beauty of her light green eyes and
long lush lashes behind those big-framed glasses.
But still she likes to fantasize, and in her dreams
she’s idolized by every boy she likes.

Always having wanted to be part of the “in” crowd,
she was a girl that struggled for popularity.
However, she’s been learning of another way to be!
Seeking out girls more like her, she hardly has to try
to fit in with her new friends. And now she’s much less shy.
With fun new friends, she is witty. She makes them laugh.
She’s even feeling pretty, wearing lipstick frosty pink.
She’s discovered she is smart in all her classes.
This girl who now is wearing black rimmed glasses!

She gets into the Glee Club, even sings on PBS!
With her athleticism, she also has success.
She makes Top Twelve in tryouts for cheerleading.
And though the student body does not vote her through,
she’ll soon get over it. She’s blossoming!

The glasses she will change for contact lenses,
and she does not know it yet,
but soon enough – a number of boyfriends she will get!
Also years of dance lessons and being in recitals
has boosted her self confidence.
Both her body and her spirit are transforming!

See the girl in the painting; a puzzle she assembles.
She does not know that one day
her mind will be on puzzles of a very different kind:
She will be assembling many words inside her mind,
and she will be partaking in an art called poetry.
I know all this because
the girl inside that painting – that ordinary girl –
is the one I used to be.