Photo Cosmetic

Her frizzy hair cut
her freckles dissolved
the discolouring of her clothes shine
a new colour that exudes
a beauty that isn't her own.
Her dark skin whitened sharp.
Her cheeks polished rouge
and her lips her husband had never kissed
thickened with lipsticks
that weren't there before.
Her photo a sitting on chair
still pose, awkward stare,
eyes cow black, the camera
her mirror full of disillusion,
her fake teeth yellowed from cigarette stains,
her nose flat and her eyes slanted
without colours or shine,
she is made into a star
simply with a Photoshop
by the surgical skills of a computer boy,
who changes an old photo into a kind of allusion
and beauty to be framed and hung
in the home of the one photographed.
Each incision full of gloss,
moles, freckles bad hair day
all can be dissolved and made over
with photo cosmetic at the cost
of a few thousands riels.