Image by DrJohnBullas via Flickr

Utmost appeal
These delicate feet,
Petite and slight
The tinier the best.
Rituals of beauty
By dictated traditions
Performing a practice
Of barbaric custom.
Ancient Chinese
Believed in this way,
Girls had no choice
When only two or three.
Feet broken in two
Then tightly bound,
Toes forced under
Now trussed even tighter.
A “lotus flower”
Is what they became,
The deformity causing
A sexy swagger.
Three inches were optimal
For exquisiteness,
The pain endured
Remained in silence.

No marriage for those
Who did not comply.

Delicate embroidered
Silk shoes were worn,
The elegant finest
Most pleasing of all.
Over a thousand years
Women bore this rite,
By men who deemed
This look enticing.