The Beauty of a Woman

Happy International Woman's day!

Tell me I'm beautiful
It's what I'm programmed to desire
I was raised by beautiful princesses with perfect features on perfect faces
And Barbie with a body anatomically incorrect

I want to be aesthetically pleasing
Media says I should be
A woman's looks seem to be put up in the storefront windows
While their personalities are described in the buyer's manuals no one reads
So why work on something nobody reads?

Forget everything I just said and pretend you've always been blind
Now tell me I'm gorgeous
Because within my body, I can create and hold another life
Because for every hard plane of a man, I am all the softness of a woman
Because I'm not the size of my bust, waist, or butt
Nor am I any other feature bound to wrinkle, sag, gray, disappear along with time
I have a brain you can explore and a soul you can touch
A heart you can live forever in if it decides to open its doors

I'm a woman
The magic of my body
The strength of my love
The waves of my personality
That's what my beauty should be founded on,
Anything else is just...