Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

 

Do you remember how we used to panic when Cosmo, Vogue, and Mademoiselle

      ladies
            would Glamour-us
            out of existence

                        So ultra bright
                        would be their smile
                        so lovely their
                        complexion
their confianza based on
someone else’s fashion
and their mascara’d mascaras
            hiding the cascaras
            that hide their ser?

I would always become cold inside
                                    mataonda to compete
            to need
            to dress right
            speak right
            laugh in just the
            right places
            dance in just
            the right way
My resistance to this type of
      existence
      grows stronger every day
Y al cabo ahora se
      que se vale
      preferir natural luz
                                    to neon.

 

confianza: Confidence
mascaras: Masks
cascaras: Shells
ser: Being
mataonda: Dampener; onda is a “trip” in the positive sense- to matar onda  is to kill, to frustrate the “trip”- to dishearten.
Y al cabo ahora se que se vale preferir natural luz: And now anyway I know that it is worthy to prefer natural light.

 

Hernandez-Avila, Ines. “To Other Women Who Were Ugly Once.” Women: Images and Realities.  
          Ed. Suzanne Kelly, Gowri Parameswaran, Nancy Schniedewind. New York: The McGraw-Hill
          Companies, 2012. 125. Print.