Beauty

This poem was written when I was thinking about the book Wonder. It's easy to slip into the influence that people have a right to tell us what we're supposed to look like, but you can't judge people like that, because it's not fair.

She's been told all her life

What beauty was supposed to be

the words cut her like a knife

when she realized it wasn't she

the world laughed at her hair

and her slightly too-big eyes

the mocking harmed her so

she went out in a disguise

Hidden as one of those girls everyone wants to be

but she found that this mask

wouldn't let her be free

Her heart was heavy with pretending

day after day after day

and she began to long for someone

who would hold her tight and say,

"You are beautiful beyond compare,

please let me take this mask away."

But so many people told her

what beauty was meant to be

And her thoughts finally realized,

"The one who decides, is me."

They couldn't tell her how to dress

or how to fix her hair

they couldn't say her complexion

would never ever be fair

She wore her beauty like a sign

tied around her neck

with words etched into the stone,

"You haven't broken me yet."

She understood her worth

lied not upon her skin

but it was the goodness of her heart

and of her soul within.