Beauty

What is beauty?

I mean true beauty,

None of that ‘coat yourself in makeup’ or

‘be like everyone else’ stuff.

Beauty is strength.

But strength comes from pain.

 

You see that girl, scurrying down the hall.

Her clothes hang on her as if meant for a giant.

Her posture folds in on itself.

Because she stopped wearing the latest trends,

she lost her friends, and her popularity.

How shallow is high school?

No one knows the real reason why.

Those tight clothes caused the bruises,

left by her abusive father, to shriek in pain.

Besides if people actually saw her ribs,

they would know that she was anorexic.

So she hides in her sweatpants and baggy jacket,

wiping away at a stray tear that falls at the cruelty of her peers.

 

Do you see him? Yes that one,

sitting in the corner of the lunch room, picking at his food.

Names like “idiot,” “emo,” “waste of space,” swirl around him.

If you look close, you can see his jaw clench as he holds in his pain.

What did he ever do to deserve this kind of torture?

As some jocks walk by,

one kicks his side, while another spits on his face;

everyone starts laughing.

As the tears finally fall, he races to the nearest bathroom;

rolling up his sleeves, he pulls out a knife from his bag.

He carves the word “worthless” into his skin,

salty tears mixing with the copper blood.

 

How is it that no one sees? Or does no one even care?

It’s not hard to tell people are hurting,

yet somehow its okay to make that worse.

Because of you, someone may take the fast way out, unable to handle it;

their death will be on your hands.

But there are some, unfortunately a rare few,

who are able to push through their pain and find the light at the end of that very dark tunnel.

They are the strong.

They are the truly beautiful.