An embryonic powerhouse, endowed with several aptitudes,
Her talents would enable her to angle for the moon.
Persistently she worked at school, tenaciously pursued
The highest marks and got them, a shuttle flying through the loom.1
Yet out of class it seemed her efforts didn't really matter,
The more she knew, the less she was regarded by her peers.
They called her teacher's pet and met her answers with a glower
As puberty approached she learned that what is most revered
Is sex appeal, the coinage divvied out to engender power.
Too young she chose to fling away the raiment of constraint,
Causing the diaspora of prudent inclinations.
As soon as her capacities began to maturate,
She'd hide them so as not to lose the friendships she had won.
Dumbing down she found to be the quickest route to take.
She offered every panderer exactly what he wanted.
Express lanes opened easily, misnamed a lucky break.
Big bosses and producers with hot, satyric hands
Would offer her positions and privileges and grants.
She lured them with her luscious fruits, finagling her assent.
Still, overused and underpaid, she lacked the chief ingredient:
A ruthlessness begotten of presumption and myopia,
The workings of her mind remained her sole impediment.
As time went by she found her currency devaluated.
A quick glance in the mirror brought about anxiety.
Surgical enhancements were now being contemplated.
She could be restored, resume her former coquetry,
A chisel here and there till she conformed to the ideal.
One day a co-employee confessed his heart-felt loyalty,
He told her of his honor and assured fidelity.
She laughed out loud to hear of his devotion and his chastity,
Concepts inconsistent with her liberal education.
He said that he could help her to escape the tyranny
Of ever-present sleaze and wonton exploitation.
She argued, 'sex is entertainment, a frolic, just a spree.'
'Agreed', he said, 'but not so merry when the body and mind
Are severed from each other, a ribald butchery.’
'In truth', she said, 'I've never had a friend of any kind.
I doubt that this is possible, but I'll keep your offer in mind.'
Later, doing the rounds, she overheard a shoddy anecdote.
It seemed she was the object of their adolescent mirth.
She'd become the punch line of a crude, quotidian joke.
The snickers sent her reeling, she lost her sense of worth.
Seeking out the one who'd placed his heart upon a platter,
She admitted he was right, that she needed to be freed.
True friendship was her new ambition, love no laughing matter.
Together they would be a rival force against the gloom,
Respect and care the rocket fuel to get them to the moon.