She Should Have Known How Beautiful She Was
Inspired by Alex Vogel

She lay on a bed of decaying leaves
her back to the ground, mouth kissing the sky
breathing beneath the quilted twilight.
Her dark roots blended with the colours of October
attempting to bloom with the beauty of nature,
Wishing the starlight would seep into her skin,
to her blood and bones, granting her their radiance.

The insecurities found her, even in night’s brilliance.
Her shadow self, the attacking voice that plagued her with self-doubt
whispered in her ear, always in solitude.
Curled next to her as the moonlight escaped the clouds saying
Worthless.
None could love you.
Your body is hideous.
She felt abandoned and agreed,
turning to her side, making herself as small as possible
to not offend the eyes of the earth with her repulsive image.
But she was not alone.

Nature argued, gusting relentlessly with its voice, the wind.
Bending the trees so far that their skeletal hands
attempted to clutch for their flesh scurrying from the enraged current.
You are the flower beside the rose that no hand will ever choose.
The roundness of the human eye reflects projected beauty,
but the gaze of the earth sees beyond skin.
The wind howled “She is beautiful!”
She is breaking! hissed the shadow.

Storm clouds covered the suns saturating the night
erasing the light for the shadow to survive.
Sitting with Autumn in her hair,
and the wind whispering always in her ear, she smiled and said
“I am beautiful.”

10/04/2007

Author's Note: I'm rewriting a lot of my work for my Senior Project. The original work was inspired by my friend Alex Vogel's painting. http://www.flickr.com/photos/straightfacebomb/126548664/

Posted on 10/04/2007
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