Estella

Inspired by Estella Havisham from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, who is basically my Victorian alter ego...

I recall the day you finally spoke.
Pressed for a verdict, you uttered,
"Proud and insulting," but it never
passed the haughty guards resting within my ears.

"And pretty."

Pretty.
Pretty.
Pretty pretty pretty.
Two syllables,
the permanent alpha and omega
of my universe.

Perchance I may have smiled when you gave them to me,
but in time they became like the countless clumsy mouths
from which they
stumbled,
tripped,
fell.

Cheap. Common. Too easily attainable.
Even words, you see, should play hard to get.
If only they had learned what I was taught:
The heart is a man's strongest weakness
and his own greatest enemy.

I am not damaged, Pip.
I'm flawless.