The perfect body that could be built,

With slender arms and gentle skin,

A small waist and an easy grin

Sparkly eyes, dark locks up pinned.

Oh, it was her dream to look like that.

So, Anya kept innovating techs from way back

When she was still a teenager and had

Started to hate her body; she collapsed –

All the time she had spent cursing her figure

All the hate she had received made her trigger.

It would now end with her invention forever.

‘The perfect body’ she had named her armour.

It was built with precision and high technology

Like a bot that could cover a human body.

It could make her tall and look so pretty

And mark her importance in society.

Not only that! It had many other functions,

It could increase her speed and reduce her tension

It could allow her to perform numerous operations

It was the ultimate human-robot combination.

Anya took a deep breath and wore the armour

To test her creation that could transform her.

She didn’t know the way out of the bot cover

But was determined there would be no need to recover –

Her own self: so weak and so ugly.

There are only two options – to die or be pretty.

As soon as she finished setting up

‘The perfect body’ upon her skin

She closed her eyes while she contracted

In the bot, in which she was shut in.

Oh, but it didn’t feel so great inside

She felt suffocated and heavy

In the mirror, she saw herself looking fabulous

But no, she didn’t feel so pretty.

She tried running, she was so quick

She could think a million thoughts at once.

But she felt like a fire lit in a lamp

So alive but confined in metal and rust.

She wanted to cry but couldn’t bring herself to

Wanted to scream but her voice came out modified.

She touched and felt different, weird sensations

Her vision was clear but artificial when she looked outside.

She might have been the perfect creation

But she felt her individualism snatched away

In the pursuit of perfection. Nothing was real to her

As she sat locked behind her own creation today.

Her doorbell rings and it’s louder

And a lot harsher than before.

In comes her mother with her pet cat

As Anya gladly opens the door.

But her mom is perplexed, she doesn’t recognise

Her own daughter dressed in a body so nice.

She keeps calling Anya out every once and twice

Ignoring the strange, pretty girl begging by her side.

Anya falls to her knees as she tries to explain

This is real! This is her trapped inside a cage!

“Mom, help! Believe me,” she says again and again

But her every cry sounds plastic and goes in vain.

She feels completely broken inside

She had lost herself in perfection strive.

‘The perfect body’ didn’t transform her life

It killed little Anya who was innocent and bright.

As she falls into the darkness of her despair and regret

And as her mom suspicions and raises her purse to hit

The cat jumps out of her hands; so carefree

And crawls all over the switches till the red lights lit.

“No!” the mom screams,

“Meow!” the cat cries

An atmosphere of terror

And anticipation rises.

But Anya had already given up

She didn’t care if her new body would shut

Down or switch off. Now dying felt better

Than living an unreal life, forever stuck.

As she closed her eyes and relaxed her mind,

Hoping death would come as a blessing in disguise.

But nothing happened at all for a long time

Only parts of ‘The perfect body’ peeled off her sides.

Never in her life had she been so pleased

To see her patchy, hairy skin breathe

To feel her real body under the breeze

To feel herself with her real hands; Indeed

She had learnt to love herself and realised –

The great responsibility that comes with science