Upon the world's mantelpiece hangs a picture
A faultless portrait of absolute beauty and
splendour
(Or rather what the world believed it to be)
The subject of the picture was an epitome
Of the female body.
A pair of the most striking lips
Another of sexy seductive hips
Across which any man would run his fingertips
She bore perfectly slim sculpted thighs
In a subtle facial expression, lay large delicate
eyes
vivid and dark in a mystifying shade
Her golden skin glimmered, never to fade
Be Beautiful
The artwork was aptly titled
And there it was put for the world to marvel

A young girl sat staring at a TV screen
Consuming the images in pages of magazines
Even as she escaped to the outside
From those attractive models, she could not hide
Be Beautiful - infomercials, billboards and TV ads
Now had her convinced that she was FAT
A pretty girl at the age of fifteen
Found herself crying tears of low self esteem
Obsessed with the numbers on scales and her
clothes
"You are what you eat" - or so she'd been told
In the mirror she'd stand squeezing at her hips
Disgusted at the fact that her jeans wouldn't fit
She surveyed herself through others' eyes
Discontented with the view, she cursed her thighs
She looked down at her D cup breasts
She despaired and wished them a cup or two less
Sickened to her guts at what she ate
She gave up eating and turned to self hate
Pent up in her room she wept and cried
As hollow tears rolled, her whole being died

Brainwashed by the images she'd abundantly seen
Afraid of rejection - she was ONLY FIFTEEN
She was beautiful, in body and soul
Yet she never believed it even when she was told
At size 12 she believe she was big
How many others obsess as she did?
Addicted to the need to be perfect
Determined to correct minor defects
The plastic surgeons of the world get richer
As teenage girls become sicker
Starving and vomiting just to look thinner
Dying to be beautiful
The portrait of perfection painted so well for us
Poisons our vision and destroys our minds
Look now with untainted eyes
To love yourself. Be Beautiful - Be You

aww roses for me? Thank you! Would love to hear some criticism? =D

I really liked it


Tammy

Ty for posting the poem....it is so powerful

The poem could help people struggling with themselves to truly see their beauty, both inside and out

Your very welcome, have plenty more to put up in time =)

Please do!

This is great and so true. Thanks for posting and I look forward to more.

excellent!

This would be perfect as a song!

Being a song is this poem's destiny, I already feel like I've heard it before!

Great work