THE FACE IN THE MIRROR
The face in the mirror, staring back.
Perfectly done eyebrows, kohl, blue eye shadows,
Long, curled lashes, what did it lack?
Purple glitters, the right highlighter, blush on, a shade of rose.
Dab, dab, dab, she had worked on the foundation,
Plum shade lipstick, contouring, it amazed her, the perfection.
She watched in triumph, as years shed off.
Happy, contented, she had the upper hand,
The owner of the face in the mirror.
She applied, and reapplied the bronzer, the last dash of shimmer,
How could feel lingering gazes already,
She bloated, tossed the fantasy that she'd be the most beautiful lady.
How easy, effective, an art to conceal what's unwanted,
To cover up the flaws, to watch imperfections shed.
Triumphant, victorious.
The face in the mirror, staring next morning.
Cover gone, where to hide to?
She cringed in disbelief, shivering, wondering.
Futile! All the effort gone for nothing!
The lines had reappeared, marks, ghastly blemish,
Disappointed, aghast, perplexed, anguish.
Had she been this way, even a few years back?
Makeup had happened, makeup the giver,
Dominated too long, too vain, makeup the destroyer,
She watched, faltered as the years came back, accelerated.
She felt cheated, swallowed into some pithole.
What lie was she living, what had she been believing?
Small, shrinking in misery, reduced to nobody, grieving.
She wanted to decline her very own skin!
She wish she hadn't chased perfection, wished she could cling to flaws.
Wished she hadn't basked, lusted over applause.
Makeup had fled, triumphant, unabashed.
The beautiful lie it had been all along,
She had flaunted what was never hers, a mask she had donned too long.
Left with nothing, bared to reality, the veil of perfection stripped.
Beauty proved to be elusive once more.
Comments