BEAUTY

My face would never be my fortune,
my mother would say to me;
"your eyes are not pretty enough,
beauty has slipped you by".

In the scale of good looks
in my extended family,
of maternal aunts and cousins
all were rated well above me.

To be easy on the eye,
pleasing with my smile,
get ahead in life-
snare a good husband;
all the uses of beauty
would be denied to me.

As I found soon enough,
it does open up doors;
gets you a foothold on the ladder
give a leg-up to destiny. 

Later on in life's journey
much later than should've been
I had the epiphany
looks don't matter
any more than you want them to mean.

Its the inner space that counts
try to alter that;
all that can be done,
do to the best of your ability,

Reclaim the basic human traits:
kindness and empathy,
to those in distress-
a helping hand from time to time,
to those who may need.

Stoke the fires within
light up the spark in your heart;
small deeds of kindliness
will take you very far.


Flickers of the flame
of constancy and contentment,
will be cast on your face-
the consonance of what you think.

Finally at the end of the passage
when your soul is in upward flight-
evanescence will be yours;
what will be left behind-
a transcendent,
luminous,
divine humanity.