I’ve been called boring,

I’ve been told I am miserable,

Weird, odd, names of derision,

Not our kind, useless,

Straight up to my face

That I was going to Hell,

That they wished I hadn’t survived

The experience of self-harm,

That I was a disappointment,

That I wasn’t loved,

That she wished she hadn’t turned up

To our wedding,

Three hours after saying I do,

On a train to London as we set off

On honeymoon…

I have been woken up

In the middle of the night

And been asked why I was so ugly,

That ‘not to say anything as they will deny it,

But no one likes you’,

Why do you bother, just give up…

Then there was the moment

That crushed, can you just stop…

You’re making us look bad…

And you wonder why I try my best

Just to get a smile from a stranger.