In the dark ages when television had two channels
young girls studied celebrity to learn that beauty equaled
wishes for world peace
This message went right around the ears of fathers
to mothers who scoffed silently, silent scoffing was also learned,
A great weapon, from the underground matriarchy
to tide maidens over, to harbor the powerless – as it were,
or you could say the soon to be powerful who grew into beauty.
The homely girl was beloved as an example of goodness since
she already had world peace- no Hector would engage to fight for her
All knew this and bowed their heads
hoping that looking in the mirror tomorrow would have seen
beauty slip in under cover of restless darkness.
Sometimes it did, as is witnessed
by the skinny girls rise to fame, and twiggy dominance,
the tall and thin claimed title over all comers
who were left to diet frantically
A woman’s crown is her hair and veiled hair looks like holiness
because god knows women should hide crowns
therefore it means safety from prurience, or at least seductiveness contained
It would not do to imperil or to unveil her with rapacious desire
after all, the bathing-suited beauties
did wish for eager audiences in their living rooms
to look for world peace as if it were an egg hunt in the park
Which could have been said to be the first of three
wishes granted by hooked fishes before they are thrown back to sea
they, having been freed, swim forever connected and in debt
to the bones of sailors dissolving on the sea floor
Too late to wish cetacean dominance on land and sea.
Who catches, who is caught, and who is thrown back,
depends upon who remains fit to man the ships of war.
S. Page, is from the backwaters of Florida. Authoring over 600 works, she studied philosophy, language, and poetry at the University of Florida, the University of Freiburg, the University of Colorado, and Jungian psychology at the Naropa Institute. She birthed four children. In the past she was a professional Storyteller.
