Broken Beauty

Beauty slips between the cracks sometimes,

The split foreheads and the broken teeth,

Smashed bottles of Heineken in gaps on the sidewalk—

Ants won’t even touch it for fear of slicing their appendages,

But I know that even invisible beauty can be dangerous.

She walks in the night, painted like a Picasso,

And she sheds things for nothings, nobodys;

And she’s scarred like secret ink that spies use,

For her pain is inside, but she’s beautiful.

He writes in secret of course, for fear of discovery,

For fear of vulnerability but he loves her of course,

And she’ll never know but that he dies

And his last breath was “she’s beautiful.”

And that life could be less complicated,

That trees would keep their shade and leaves

Would color without dying, and that the fall

Would occur without the fall, and that Heinekens

Wouldn’t smash families as they crashed to the floor;

For beer is good and life is good

In moderation.

Oh but she’s beautiful, even though she’s broken…