Don’t define yourself by what others think of you
Because they can’t conceive of how you feel or what’s true.

Those people who put you down and make fun of one particular feature
Aren’t happy themselves or with any other creature

Anything so consistent and so persistent, makes you feel inferior
And you try to change your interior and your ugly exterior

Do you harbor residue pain for something that happened so long ago
And you’ve constantly endured the hurt and never let it show?

Until self-loathing and self-hatred have made you hate the world for years,
And recognizing and admitting the pain just brings forth the tears.

When someone walks into a room, what do you feel,
Does your face light up… it speaks your heart and says what’s real.

The farther away you are from the ideal perfection
The more you feel the loneliness and heartache of rejection.

What becomes so important and so necessary seems to be meeting the ideal set by others,
Why can’t people see that everyone has beauty and treat the world like brothers?

The key lies in the way we see ourselves…as a beauty or a beast?
And to the extent we feel we deviate from the accepted norm, the pain is also increased.

Don’t hold up a gauge for others thus showing what we feel about their presence,
Don’t make them have to meet your standard of perfection or attack their essence?

It all depends on you…

By Ann Leyh