Beauty in Paradise - Diane Scantlebury

With head down
She trudges, duck footed,
Her limp, greasy hair
Viciously drawn back
Into a tight bun,
The pavement trembles
With her heavy foot fall,
Purposefully she strides on
With shoulders hunched
And head now drooping low,
Low as her self esteem,

Beneath the outward surliness
She is a pretty girl,
A beauty trapped in an ogre’s body,
She pretends to be impervious
To the abuse and insults,
The side glances and sniggers
Of ignorant, thoughtless passersby,
She throws up her shield
Of I don’t care nonchalance,
But the hurt breaks through her guard
And clings in painful barbs to her back,

Finally she reaches
The sanctuary of the corner shop
Where she can grab her fix,
Her daily comfort,
It’s only there among the crisps and chocolate
That her cherub cheeks flush,
And her small, tight lips smile
In ecstatic anticipation,
She is a beauty trapped
In a cycle of self destruction,
But for this brief moment
She’s in control and chooses to ignore it,
For when she gets her haul home
She knows she’ll be in paradise.

Diane Scantlebury