The Beauty Within
A Poem
A Poem
In the bleak chambers of my mind
I dwell on that fated eve
when fire’s fury fell upon my feeble frame,
leaving THIS — this gruesome mask
of gnarled tissue and twisted sinew
to mar my countenance
for all my wretched days.
To have that cherished veil of youthful bloom
rent and ruined in fate’s cruel grasp!
No comfort or respite given
to my vacant stares, my muted cries,
nor the prayers offered up
to unforgiving heavens.
In the sullen streets
they shun my monstrous form,
averting from my face their nauseated gaze.
And like the shadow over my brow
harrowing memories of flame and pain
and skin a-boil
haunt the lightless passages of my soul.
Yet, in dreary days that came,
a gentle suitor saw past ravaged flesh,
past pain’s disfigurement,
and found the beauty lingering within,
beyond the horrors
that consumed my outer shell.
For deep in the psyche yet untarnished,
some remnant of forgotten innocence remained,
a vestige of the child,
before darkness came to reign.