#PoemADay No.45: When Beauty Stays

They tell me beauty is fleeting
but I can’t seem to listen.
Can’t seem to filter out present feelings
when I make my decisions,
yet I’m supposed to be the voice of reason.

They tell me beauty is fleeting,
but tell me
what is fleeting
about the way my thoughts find rest
and my wandering eyes stay
when they pace the smooth contours of her face?
Tell me what is reasonable
about a wanderer wolf who turns skeptical
when he is touched by skin
that speaks
of home?

They tell me beauty is fleeting,
when they want me to think long-term,
but what is un-beautiful about growing old
with the beauty you chose?

Maybe what they mean is
it’s easy to speak bold about a future untold
when all you know is the beauty you currently see.
Maybe what they mean is
Beauty will not clean the dishes, slay the kitchen, raise bold children, 
and hold down your ego
with a Valkyrie’s foot, a grown slap, and a kind kiss
when the first thoughts you have of her role
are maid, mistress, and mother. 

Beauty is fleeting,
it will not teach you how to give
your time and ears and focus
even when you think you know the solution to her problem.

Beauty will not make you look more like Jesus,
it will not challenge you to wake up before dawn
to kneel before God with worship, service, and honor,
it will not massage the qualms in your lower back
when you come home complaining about your job,
it will not push, jab, hug, and kick you
until you quit said soul-sipping job
to go where you have been called,
it will not pray and fast
on your behalf.

It will not run
its hands
down your chest
and scars
the way only queens do,
because Beauty
is fleeting,
unfaithful,
tempting,
empty.

Or at least that’s what they tell me.

But tell me
does Beauty sound fleeting to you?