To win a beauty pageant is a kinky dream.
You want to be the biggest fish in a manmade stream.
You’ll be closely examined both for charm and beauty,
then questioned for your aptitude in fulfilling your duty
at shopping malls and other places where you’ll be on view
displaying what fine work your folks did creating you.
That you’re a lovely model is not up to debate.
What an excellent product they managed to create!
Compared to all the others, you simply glow and shine.
You have that extra element we find hard to define.
Is it a special need to please or is it blind ambition?
Or did you simply need the cash for your college tuition?
We rather hope it is the last prompting your pageantry,
so after one year on the runway, you’ll be able to break free
to live a normal life down here, milling with the crowd,
for when you’re up there, special, hobnobbing’s not allowed.
Jostled by the hoi polloi, your royal crown might tilt,
or there is a danger it might be revealed as gilt.
Not a thing of value. Just a pretty piece of junk.
A perfect metaphor all of this “glamor” to debunk.
Beauty is as beauty does the adage tries to tell us,
yet who we are is not the thing that pageants use to sell us.
You are a perfect object standing up there on a shelf,
made to please our eyes and ears. Not to please yourself.
Indeed, you’re slim and lovely. Your smile has its charm.
You simply look enchanting there on the emcee’s arm.
You will be fluffed and feted and put out on display.
It won’t be free, this privilege that you have won today.
But remember, please, when you’ve done all you’re told to do
that you will come down off that stage and simply live as you.
The prompt words are free, dream, pageant and kinky.
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/09/fowc-with-fandango-free/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/rdp-sundaydream/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/your-daily-word-prompt-pageant-December-9-2018/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/kinky/

Oh yeah, happy as a clam…! hehe Cheers Jamie
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You’ve expressed my feeling about beauty pageants perfectly, Judy. The image of those kids brings to mind all the stories about children being exploited by their parents by pushing them into beauty pageants or modeling, thus depriving them of childhood.
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This was a Spring fete at Oscar’s school and the Spring Princess and Prince campaign was to raise money for their schoolyard. They do it every year. I just loved this photo and it was sorta a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the theme. Whe you think of it, they don’t ever have male beauty pageants, do they? I love the tendency to now call them scholarship programs, but they still show their beauty and not their grades!
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Proves the point, doesn’t it!
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You’ve captured it, both in the photo and in the poem. I love the last couple of lines — remembering that the contestants will simply “live as you”!
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nicely penned!
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And many beautiful young things never figure out what or who they are and feel like empty picture frames.
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A great moral to the story, Judy! Very well done!!
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