Beauty and More

Dedicated to Ashima John

27 January 2025

You’re gathering courage 

Though their words break you 

Like the day a drunk driver broke you

When you fell on your face 

And your bones shattered

They named it an accident 

that you survived 

Even your surgeon couldn’t believe his eyes

Your body healed

In unexplainable ways 

Why are they forgetting

How you rose 

And how it took all of you 

To breathe again

To see that 

Your features aren’t the same 

And the person looking back at you 

is not the same as

the one before the breaking 

You felt pretty the day 

everything changed 

But in the aftermath 

you’re not so sure anymore 

Have you and I 

ever been sure about ourselves?

Their voices scream 

Our colour 

Our hair 

Our body 

is a problem 

that needs to be treated 

We, in comparison, 

are not the beautiful ones 

Something needs to change

They remind us 

They scream at us 

so softly

It has been six years since 

You bear the scars of saving 

of differences borne from healing 

You are an expression 

of intricate care and design 

Is this our remaking? 

Through death 

Rebuilt to rise

To become  

More beautiful than before?

Don’t be afraid 

To look at yourself anew 

Hold your gaze

Your reflection in the mirror sings 

Broken restored  

Carefully reformed 

Precious like gold in the cracks

of what was broken 

Now pieced together 

by pierced wrists that bleed

in unexplainable love 

When they look at you

and all they see

is how much weight you need to lose

and all that you need to change

I hope you see 

beauty and more

Your body is holy

Your body is good 

You embody 

beauty and more