Pretty Is But Doesn’t Do

Beauty signifies something more than a high degree of prettiness because ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful’ can differ by category. We say “beauty is only skin-deep” but ‘beautiful’ can also describe character, what a person does and why. On the other hand ‘pretty’ can only be skin deep.

There’s nothing new here; the ancient Greeks thought phenotype and virtue were correlative (and that’s just one place to start). And/But in the eye of the beholder we maintain our postmodern pluralistic relativity. Your pretty/beautiful is valid but may not be my pretty/beautiful. We judge character and attractiveness differently according to our individual peculiar standards and we get them just as confused as love and lust.

Even so: embedded underneath the details of our glossy, high-res, gendered, digital standards of ideal faces and bodies – I think we really believe “beauty is as beauty does.” 

Gorgoneion

Now I will admit,

bright shiny selfish woman loved with all my heart,

a fiery creature cannot help the light they cast,

help desire shed at the speed of force,

an all direction nova flung medusa hot,

when your want lands

knowing not the hand that loves you

mere mortals take heed,

and I’m no hero with head trophies shield mounted

to my pedestal, yet I want something

(just one thing, but selfishly you must understand)

I was born for you, I will get what I came for:

nourishing light ––you.

  

Missing Antonym

I cannot make death die, not really,

though some do say someone did;

I make death live by making life die

but it’s always mostly wrong.

Yet I can make life live, not once

but day by day –the opposite of sin.

And what is making life live daily,

fullest brightest most we can?

And what this best when we try and fail,

why seek we more tries today?

Seeking right is right desire,

is Love –the opposite of sin.

He Loves Her

He loves her, not (for her) novelty

or how exotic her soul

but for (her) light unshuttered and

unshattered, not (like his) piecemeal peace,

but for cosmic mystery –whole,

as (all) shadows seek the sacred.

~~~
Prompt taken from a line of Hopkins while thinking of my wife.

Exact Meaning

Love – a knowledge apperceived;
a faith believed (by epiphany)
between (re-)realizations

Your Mother - Flash Fiction Prompt

Your Mother called me again last night.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth again, or even to tell the same lie. I just said that you’d finally got the raise you deserved and we were finally heading to the black. That Keri was excited about starting second grade and I added the funny story about the picture we thought was a snail but turned out to be your head.

Actually Keri just now got over Brian dumping her, it only took her a week. Now she wants to double date, she and Trevor with Deidre and I. My answer “it’s a little early for that” was more than evasion - I still haven’t told D about you.

Miss you so much,

~B

p.s. I didn’t mind the gardeners taking away the notes I leave for you, you were always a fast reader anyway. But I was using our unicorn statue to weight them down and now they’ve taken that away too. I’m trying not to be mad at you anymore but it’s all been so unfair.