Self Portrait (Very Ugly)
I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror
The reflection staring back at me raised an eyebrow and groaned -
honey you look a mess
My ghastly appearance affecting my mood
I reminded myself as I always do,
I was not put on this earth to look pretty.
I was not born to be an eye pleaser.
I did not arise from the sea like the goddess Venus
This was not the face that launched a thousand ships
Or one cherished by tourists in the Louvre
You cannot compare me to a summer's day
And I am not Gatsby's green light shining across the bay
I am my own light.
My own blue light.
The color blue permanently etched across my face.
I hold the dark blue waves of the ocean in my eyes,
And a beating hurricane in my chest
The clear blue sky runs across my irises
A constant reminder of the bright new day
Born for me
I am the oracle of Delphi
I sit in a temple Apollo built for me
People travel thousands of miles to hear my words
I am Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath sitting at a writer's table amongst
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bukowski
A room full of old white men,
Demanding them to read beyond my cover
I am Frida Kahlo
My muse is myself
Her unibrow as straight as the gap in my teeth
An imperfection that deserves affection
That deserves to be showcased to the world.
I refuse to cover my mouth when I laugh
Or keep it tightly shut,
I cannot help the words that slip through the crack
And tomorrow I will look in the rectangular mirror
of a portrait that should be hanging in the MoMA,
and smile at the brilliant being inside of it.