I

“Hello there, Beautiful!

Here’s a few questions for you!”

How much of what you are

is owed to beauty?

How much is not?

When you’re no longer in the spot,

(since you’re preceived to be “light”)

what will you be offering,

(Grecian urns, not-with-standing)?

II

Was there a moment

when you surrendered to the pressure

to be only how you look?

Even when you knew

there was a deeper you

beneath that dewy skin?

But what the hell!

All anyone saw was fabulous!

Why fight it?

And now, given

gathered rose buds, dying,

what of the rest?

Will it be your best?

Or merely what’s left?

III

It is, I think,

an evolutionary intentionality

that the mind is protected

by so much bone.

Skin wins, for a while,

but after,

what’s inside the skull

can set the tone.

IV

There’s a lovely little book shop

“on the street where you live”,

so pocket the cost

of eye shadow and blush

to give your self a gift

to change how you

face

this “brave new world”

after.

Dickinson, perhaps.

Or Maya Angelou.

Or, to moderate your deep dive,

THE LITTLE PRINCE

and his narscasistic

Rose.