Ugly undone

You long for beauty 
Beyond what you see in the mirror
Like all those things you see
On a screen, on a reel, on a post
It's something you think you're not 
And have never been
But you long for it
You long to be anything but you
Because in your own eyes
You're ugly

Someone, somewhere, sometime
In a roundabout way implied it
And you wrote it on your heart
To tell yourself the story
Over and over
So you'd never forget
You're ugly

But it was a lie
Like almost everything is
Because beauty is simple
And yet more than you know

Beauty is a dog by your side
A gift of dandelion weeds
Water from a fountain
A blanket to wrap in
Songs on an old radio

It's the sun still rising in the morning
After the night your heart is broken
It's the way the wind kisses your skin
Or how the sun reflects in your eyes

Beauty is the waves of life
Crashing against your soul 
But still not drowning
It's the way you love
And how you tell someone
You don't know how to die
It's the broken dreams
You sweep up like glass
And try to glue together again

It's the way you laugh
And the way you cry
Because tears are just rain
From the storms in your heart
And if you let it
Something, somewhere, sometime 
Will grow from the rain

And the truth is you're beautiful
Because beauty is an internal force

© 2022 Loly Rinn
Photo by Jens Aber on Unsplash