in the depth of its potential
inherently beautiful
yet eminently vulnerable
to vagarous corruption.
Upon reflective rapture, in spring,
Narcissus longingly swooned
at a watery illusion of self,
vaguely represented in a fleeting
reproduction of reality.
Down the runway, the model commanded
her audience with an apery of conviction
while secretly starving for esteem
from this shallow self, easily strangled
by powder, elixir and depravation.
Longing for approval from a father
who had never seen the boy,
nor the man, through his own insecurity,
his orphan soul curled validation
with stretching sinew and plumping muscle.
Foundations in perception
substitute for sterner principle
where scavengers desperately feed
on flitting, wispy, wild-eyed dreams
and no blueprint for action.
Eschew the misleading mirror
and look more deeply, in practice,
for a reason to love your purpose
and pursue the production
of value within and without.
Self is something more solid
than the silvery shower of saliva-slime laden,
derogatory invective, thoughtlessly hurled
at the productive, with bratty conviction
and blind jealousy by glittery slugs.
Beauty is on the surface a look,
but more deeply a way,
which metamorphosizes
in a chrysalis of confidence
to emerge as a butterfly.
