Let's Be Beautiful

“Let’s Be Beautiful” 

by Melissa Rice

 

Let’s Be Beautiful

Let’s be beautiful
Outrageous and voluptuous and funny
Let’s toss our hair around
With no intention
Except for that it feels good and we’re lost in our thoughts
and in each other

Let’s laugh loudly
Not at the right time but whenever we feel like it
Not at someone or about
But at ourselves
And at life

Let’s be wonderful
Not pretty and poised and proper and pointed
Pink with dots but look up at the stars and embrace the
Rainbow
Overhear children giggling
Savor scents of anything newborn

Let’s forget to shave our legs for a whole week
Because we are so busy thinking about
The entire world’s children
And not just our own
Or not even

Let’s eat right and sleep right and strengthen our core muscles
Not because the Department of Longevity says so
But because we love living
And want to stick around a little bit longer
Than we’d originally planned because we’re not as afraid as we used to be

Let’s triumph
Over concealer and concealing
Injections and architectural French pedis
Over death of children by insults and
No true love

Let’s celebrate
Not what should have been and would have been and could still be
Not removal of Section 8 housing from our neighborhood
But now

Let’s collaborate
Not because we’re supposed to but because it’s more succulent.
Have sex on Tuesday mornings because it’s atypical and not predictable Unpretentious and glorious and very, very quiet

Let’s drink it all in
The sickening, the riveting, the passionate, the wise and the unwise
Let’s be decadent and luscious and full of justice
Care about a little instead of
I could care less

Let’s dance incorrectly and step on each other’s toes
Fall over each other and into each other
And realize we are at our best
When we do

Let’s be careful, but not too careful
Let’s touch our souls with our hands
Let’s hold each other gently and spontaneously
With no purpose and with every purpose

Let’s Be Beautiful.