Self Portrait (Very Ugly)

I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror

The reflection staring back at me raised an eyebrow and groaned -

honey you look a mess

My ghastly appearance affecting my mood

I reminded myself as I always do,

I was not put on this earth to look pretty.

I was not born to be an eye pleaser.

I did not arise from the sea like the goddess Venus

This was not the face that launched a thousand ships

Or one cherished by tourists in the Louvre

You cannot compare me to a summer's day

And I am not Gatsby's green light shining across the bay

I am my own light.

My own blue light.

The color blue permanently etched across my face.

I hold the dark blue waves of the ocean in my eyes,

And a beating hurricane in my chest

The clear blue sky runs across my irises

A constant reminder of the bright new day

Born for me

I am the oracle of Delphi

I sit in a temple Apollo built for me

People travel thousands of miles to hear my words

I am Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath sitting at a writer's table amongst

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bukowski

A room full of old white men,

Demanding them to read beyond my cover

I am Frida Kahlo

My muse is myself

Her unibrow as straight as the gap in my teeth

An imperfection that deserves affection

That deserves to be showcased to the world.

I refuse to cover my mouth when I laugh

Or keep it tightly shut,

I cannot help the words that slip through the crack

And tomorrow I will look in the rectangular mirror

of a portrait that should be hanging in the MoMA,

and smile at the brilliant being inside of it.