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Naïla Bensaïfi

Contributor

Because jealousy is the greatest compliment

I keep looking at my brindle eyes in the mirror, as if waiting for them to turn sapphire Sometimes, I don’t see what the painters did

When they discovered us

People thought they were painting sensuality

People thought they were painting beauty

Today, that very concept deviated

No one should have defined it

Because now, I only see what today's world has to shame

Staring at the mirror, yearning to see a difference each time

The face looking back at me does not understand why I visit her so much

Maybe because I grew up with no familiarity around

Maybe because all that’s around me are pale faces and translucent eyes

There!

That is where jealousy was invented

The root of it is their gleaming hair

Is that what the painters would have liked?

Surely

So, I’ve tried to calm mine down

To Trap it

To tell it to stop its crazy patterns

Do not reproach me that, I was never the only one

I was never the only one to wish a smaller figure

I was never the only one to wish her nose hump gone

I was never the only one to wish for lips that could kiss the sky

I was never the only one to be jealous

I ask you to not deny it but to stay flattered

Because jealousy is the greatest compliment