Beauty overlooking envy
“Look at me” he whispers, shouts, screams—
But all anyone ever sees is themselves, and are we so impressed?
What is a reflection? A gauge of outer beauty that only matters when one is looking.
What happens if I close my eyes?
What happens if I go blind?
Does your beauty stay?
Or does it fade like the sun below the horizon?
Does your beauty hold the same weight when everything looks the same?
Like black, like empty, like nothing.
Only brittle to the touch and sharp enough to cut—
Oh Narcissus, I could build a garden to your vanity
And still you would be unsatisfied.
“Look at me” you would still whisper, shout, scream—
Of all things of beauty upon which I could lay my gaze
I think I will choose these flowers over your garden any day.
Life and Death and a Girl
Her mind was made of bright lights,
Flashing, blinding, burning.
Her eyes were made of turquoise oceans,
Pushing, pulling, shining.
Her lips were made of paper love letters,
Touching, kissing, cutting.
Her hair was made of soft grass fields,
Tickling, laughing, hiding.
Her soul was made of rainbow paints,
Rising, arching, falling.
Her heart was made of glass feelings,
Loving, hoping, shattering.
Her blood was made of moon ebbed tides,
Cresting, gushing, pooling.
Her body was made of all these things—beautiful, ugly, tragic—now reduced to skin and bones, promises and scars.
For all the lies her body endured, her bones spoke truth—just a girl, once of flesh, stardusted dreams and ocean night breezes. Now, just a corpse—brittle bones and barely healed cracks.
Death touched her gently, kindly, lovely. Held her sweetly, calmly, reverently. For bones told no lies, as flesh so oft did. Her bones were just a girl, loved by death and no one at all.
Death dressed her beauty—
Stuffed her ribs with flowers soft, petals silk,
Crowned her head with morning glories,
Filled her heart with roses pink and roses white,
Painted her body in blues and greens, white and red.
Pink—soft like flesh—
And orange—heavy like sunlight—
These were the things of which he made her.
For while Life had dressed her cruelly, touched her cruelly, loved her cruelly.
Death would call her sweet, touch her tender, love irrevocably.
Life had given her away, flung to waves of far seas.
Death clutched her precious, a pearl in his chest of treasures: she was butterflies and sunshine, honey milk and dew drops, cloudy skies and lamplit streets.
Life had given her away and Death had laid his claim.
What she was once, she would never be again—
For now she was his.