Lucas

She doesn't believe me
when I tell her she is beautiful. 
(How do I tell her
how beautiful she is?) 

The thick curves of her hips,
the soft pink of her lips,
the radiance of her face and eyes,
she does not see, she cannot see it - why? 

She evades all compliments,
accepts them gladly, grins
delights in the sweater or shoes.
But still she does not see it. 

What words to use? What banner to rally to?
Adverbs? Adjectives? A forgotten Greek muse?
How many poems have died for this cause?
How many quatrains have risen only to fall? 

What task could be more useless, needless, or noble,
than convincing the beauty that she's beautiful?