Hot Take #2 (Fiction)

The loving photos of her stroking her horse’s mane,

Exposed as a hoax for personal gain.

The mystery man she made known as “Prince Charming”,

As fake and imaginary as her experience in farming.  

Her entourage, her “friends”,

Now see her through a different lens –

A fraud, a liar,

A conspirator, a falsifier.

It wasn’t always like this.

She once felt everything but the need to please.

Proudly indulging in the words of pioneers,

From Austen to Woolf, to the hidden biographies of female engineers.

But the whispers of superficiality engulfed her.

“She’s nothing but a blur,”

“How do I put this nicely… you’re mundane,

Everything about you screams plain jane!”

She rewrote her story with the clichéd transfer,

No longer the hidden litterateur,

No longer Miss ‘Ugly’ Betty,

But the “party girl” who splurged on confetti.

She did everything to stand out,

From posting weekly Insta makeovers to exhibiting that infamous pout.

Until the attention became her demise,

Her jealous, spiteful “homies” exposed her lies.

Their initial obsession with her perfect looks,

To a friendship close enough to rummage through her yearbooks.

But when she refused to ever invite them over,

And requested for too many rides in their Range Rover,

Their suspicion marked her descent,

When one day they followed her home… to a convent.

Fallen and crushed, was her honour,

With no Prince Charming nor Insta makeover to save her.

Now she reminisces her days as a plain Jane,

At least she was seen as somewhat humane.

She's not all that (2021).