Beauty

Hello Everyone. Today we have 'Beauty' - a Poem by Nzuri. Read and Enjoy.

Like fire, just like fire
Weapon of man's inhumanity to man
Mama says beauty comes in all shapes,
sizes and colors

Spite filled eyes,
They tell me there's only one type of beauty
And mine doesn't belong
Tears in my eyes I'm wondering why I can't Marilyn Monroe the pain

Scalded skin, eyes of a newborn; shy, unaccustomed to the light
I can't see the sunshine
Mama said the bomb wasn't meant for me The bomb exploded my flesh into sacrifice.

Singing in tune with the moon as it traveled over our heads
Mama rocks me back and forth singing to me 'you are beautiful'
She says beauty is the type that runs skin deep

Come on!
Get up on your relentless shoes! Learn to not be afraid
She reprimands

The bomb that came a little to early,
My infant feet that waddled a little too much
The help that came a little too late
Everybody is at the wrong place at the wrong time

Wrapping me close to her bosom
Eyes wide shut
I feel the bleaching sun burn the insides of my back
Warmth emanates from her bosom
Stilling the restless poisoned butterflies in my stomach

Pay no mind to the ashes
They are barely evidence
Of how brightly you can glow
With refulgent energy
She says

An uncontrollable desire to escape
A sickness firmly bound to freedom
Mama says true beauty is like words from a love letter

Singing in tune with the moon as it traveled over our heads
Mama rocks me back and forth singing to me 'you are beautiful'
She says beauty is the type that runs skin deep

I'm Learning to not be afraid
An uncontrollable desire to escape
The grave incident changed me
Scaring me beyond my skin

It seems like it was just yesterday
The air redolent of burning flesh
My flesh
Four surgeries and two months of rehab

A sickness firmly bound to freedom
Let the incense burn on both ends
I didn't ask to be a victim of man's cruelty to man

Can I get an escape route please?
Death maybe?
Death doesn't always taste good
It certainly isn't what I want to eat soon

Having calculated the rudiments of beauty
The world found me wanting
Teasing and taunting
Maudlin expressions of sympathy
They are oblivious to your type of beauty mama says

At first there were different clothes
Longer sleeves to hide the burn scars
I slowly realized that my family had changed too

Scars and skin grafts
My Mother looks at the monster I have become and calls me beautiful
Could the image in my perfidious mirror perhaps be different from what my mother sees?
Surely there is no beauty in my burns and scars

Dad who has retreated to himself barely looks at me
Beneath the scars
Its me Dada
Your last born daughter
I'm still here

Rusty anchors they are
Shiny gem you are Mama says
There is no space for your kind of beautiful here.

You are a staccato hymn
Sung in the midst of a world that has forgotten how to value silence

Mama says loving yourself for who God made you is by far the greatest expression of beauty.
I think my Mother is beautiful.

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This poem is strongly influenced by the works of three of my favorite Poets and contains some lines and phrases characteristic of said Poets. The Poets : Joshua Bennett and King Jasmine Mans of The Strivers Row and Sunni Patterson are incredibly talented individuals that i look up to.

  - Bunmi Victoria Adegboye