She was beautiful,
Like stars in the sky.
Yes,
She was beautiful.
She was a product of self judgement
And media perspectives,
Manufactured each morning,
To destroy
The traits she’d rather not have.
She was beautiful.
Like flowers, fresh
And free.
But at the end of the day.
A flower is the most beautiful lie.
The inspiration for this piece came from a quote writing journal activity activity that we did in class as a warm up one day. The original quote was by Arkaye Kierulr and her piece called “For Example a Flower”. I got inspiration in the lines, “For Example: A flower is the most beautiful lie.” In class we had been looking at spoken word poetry and had just listened to one that discussed media and body image. The ideas that were talked about really had hit home for me, but not in the way that I was going to be able to create something following a similar direction. However, when I got this quote, themes of a lie being presented through beauty was the first thing that went through my head.
I think that majority of our world is obsessed with looking being the person everyone looks at when they walk in the room. In reality, it’s not important like people think it should be, yet it has become a priority in most lives. People are becoming manufactured, we are becoming products of our environment, so that we make perfect versions of ourselves. Yet, the world has learned how to hide things from others splendidly well to the point that if we don’t like it we can just erase it. However, beauty like this is a lie, made to help people portray themselves in the best light possible. The only flaw with this is that humans are supposed to have flaws and quirks, and making them go away altogether goes against human nature and tends to set off a warning signal in others heads. Something seems wrong.
To me, people are set on looking like they have their lives together even when they don’t. This idea of manufactured people behind the looks and actions, though they might seem perfect, aren’t always as amazing as them seem, which is what I’m trying to get across in this poem.
Image: http://www.flowermeaning.com/narcissus-flower-meaning/