Beauty’s Clutch
Life’s a library where we choose
book after book to read and muse
on the truth of each, or how it serves
to amuse us or to calm our nerves.
It starts with storybooks in our youth.
Cinderella’s lovely, her kin uncouth.
The pretty sister we all adore.
The others? Rotten to the core.
We judge by beauty evermore.
As teenagers, our thoughts are filled
with thoughts of hair, complexion, build—
the ways we rank and choose our friends.
For some, this method never ends.
We judge the world by what we see.
At court, the prettiest are set free.
Our dates determined by their cars,
Our peanut butters by their jars,
Our candidates are movie stars.
World is illusion, say the seers,
the thinkers and philosophers.
We cannot know reality
by going just by what we see.
Yet time and time again, we choose
our futures based upon our views.
The “curb appeal” that meets our eye
determines which house we will buy.
The crust is how we choose the pie.
Ted Bundy had a handsome face
that drew young ladies to his embrace.
An arm sling or perhaps a crutch
tricked them into his murderous clutch.
His handsomeness served to distract
till he’d performed his heinous act.
His cover perfect, his act most skilled,
he killed and killed and killed and killed—
lives ruined and ended as he willed.
So crack the book and look inside.
Talk before you choose your bride.
Drive the car before you buy.
Sip the wine and taste the pie.
See what’s inside if you are able.
Don’t go by face or box or label.
Though beauty dulled is less sublime,
scrub the tarnish from the dime.
Looking deeper takes more time.
Don’t choose the cover of a book.
Instead, take care to have a look.
One page nor twenty will not do.
You have the whole book left to view.
Avoid appearances and preening.
Look for truth and look for meaning.
George Eliot coined the adage first.
If for truth you have a thirst,
judging by the cover’s worst.
This poem was written 3 1/2 years ago, when I’d just started my blog and had very few readers, so I don’t think many reading my blog today have read it before. The prompt word today is clutch
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I really liked this. Even the Ted Bundy part…
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I know. I considered omitting it, but it was such a perfect example of the dangers of judging someone merely by looks that I had to include it.
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Thanks for sharing this! It’s spot-on!
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It’s actually kind of brilliant. I’m always amazed at your ability to write something with meaning AND make it rhyme.
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Thanks, Marilyn.
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