32 Flavors
by Ani DiFranco

“Squint your eyes and look closer;
I’m not between you and your ambition.
I am a poster girl with no poster;
I am thirty-two flavors and then some–
and I’m beyond your peripheral vision,
so you might want to turn your head,
‘Cause someday you’re going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said.

Both my parents taught me about good will,
and I have done well by their names;
Just the kindness I’ve lavished on strangers
is more than I can explain–
Still, there’s many who’ve turned out their porch lights
just so I would think they were not home,
and hid in the dark of their windows
til I’d passed and left them alone…

And God help you if you are an ugly girl,
‘course too pretty is also your doom–
’cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room.
And God help you if you are a pheonix,
and you dare to rise up from the ash.
A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
while you are just flying back.

I’m not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you,
and I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do.
I’m not saying that I’m a saint
I just don’t want to live that way.
No, I will never be a saint,
but I will always say:

Squint your eyes and look closer;
I’m not between you and your ambition.
I am a poster girl with no poster.
I am thirty-two flavors and then some–
and I’m beyond your peripheral vision,
so you might want to turn your head,
’cause someday you might find you’re starving
and eating all of the words you said.”