Skin Deep

Beauty is as thin and temporary as the

Skin cells we shed each day, so

Pull out the X-ray and take a deeper

Look, for true beauty lies within

 In the muscle that gives me strength

And connects the

Bones that give me structure

And protect the

Heart that beats without fail

And replenishes the

Blood that warms my body

And delivers oxygen to the

Brain that holds my knowledge

And sends these words to my

Mouth to articulate the joys and pains of my

Soul that is being amputated by the

World that insists I be cut into segments

That there are parts of me more beautiful than

Others and that I should lay myself down on the

Chopping block and sacrifice my pieces to

Doctor Frankenstein, allow myself to be

Mutilated and perverted and stitched back up into

The thing I am supposed to be, a

Scrapbook Barbie doll only daring to

Reveal the sections deemed most desirable by the

Billboards and the magazines, for this is a

World that demands I cut off my

Imperfections with a scalpel and

Paint over what cannot be permanently erased, but

I will not be torn apart

I will not be dissected, for the

Sum of my parts is who I am

I am not breasts

I am not thighs or hips or eyelashes

I am body all or nothing

I am evolution’s most powerful system

I am atoms and cells and tissues

Together in harmonic rhythm

A flawless design functioning to keep

Me alive and speaking

I am intricate and complex clockwork

Each piece of my anatomy connected to the

Next, and I refuse to butcher myself into

Anything less than human