Beauty

At 9:45 am her phone alarm rings. Beauty looks at me with sleepy eyes and whispers, “morning.” I don’t reply, but I smile and touch her face. It feels soft and pretty. Beauty’s hair is still wet from last night’s beauty shower, where she bathed in orange zest, cinnamon, and moonlight. Beauty washes her face with spring water and gentle breeze. She then moisturizes with La Mer tears-infused balm. She makes a teapot of sunflowers and daisies, waits until it’s lukewarm, chugs her teacup it in one shot and pours me one. “I don’t drink” I say. “It makes butterflies grow inside of my stomach”, she says.

Beauty sits in front of a mirror and applies rose-coloured blush. She asks me how her cheeks look like and I tell her that they’re gleaming like sunshine and warmth. Beauty wears a tranquil pastel-colored short-sleeve midi dress that flows like poetry around her figureless figure. She smiles and kindness spills out of her like words, like meaning, like happy. She steps outside and the world grows quieter. So much love, she feels. From up close, from afar, standing in line, behind metro doors. So much love, she is. Everyone who’d known Beauty will tell you all about her. They will tell you how Beauty has pores that respire chaos and exhale tenderness. They will tell you that Beauty is gentle like clouds in light blue skies and soft like silk and sunrise and summer. And they will tell you how when Beauty touches your palms, love flows through your body like songs, like dreams, like belonging. At midnight, Beauty comes home and watches my heart wound like darkness, like fear, like void, like ugly. I can’t hear Beauty’s words but her voice sounds like comfort. She places her hand on my shoulder and I feel calm like light, like “I understand”, like soothing, like safety… Beauty walks into the garden and hops on a green leaf turning yellow. She ascends and reaches the highest trees. She shrinks smaller and smaller until she touches the sky and I wave goodbye. I lock the door and curl up in a bathtub filled with orange zest, cinnamon and moonlight.