Beauty

And the beauty
that surrounds her
is faded
as the childhood memories
begin to flood
and wash her aura
clean of colour

She still believes them.
those children who chanted
that she was never beautiful
that a dress couldn't
cover her face
and a pig couldn't
turn into a princess

She still believes them.
She grew up looking at
the billboards
promoting plastic
surgery and stared
in the mirror to see
a nose too flat
and eyes too slitted
dimples in the wrong
place when she smiled.
So she stopped.

So I  sit with her
tonight.
after she locked
herself into the shower
but the water that fell down
was not from the faucet
but from the eyes
that were looked into once
and saw the movement of lips
saying she was not beautiful.

I knocked and stood
my heart aching at the thought
of the little girl
inside of this amazing woman
that was still hurt and scarred
from words of a teacher
a friend
from her now untruthful spirit.

When she came out
she was recalling the thoughts
of an unfinished art piece
that was left to rust
when she gave up on
herself
because nothing in negativity
progresses

"You are beautiful"
"You are beautiful"
The words just roll
off of her like
oil and water
because her mind
has been tainted
and her composition
has made it
so that she can't fully
blend into the truth.

Only her herself
can choose to change
but she is pushing against
all the waves and currents
of negativity and the definition
of 'perfect.'
But she in her innocence
is more beautiful
than the ones
who create themselves
after the same
model and illusion.
She is unique
and her creativity
has invested into
others, making her
heart warm and her smile
pure and genuine

When she is not thinking thoughts
of what she could have been
as the children called her a pig
clothed as a princess.