What I Like About Ugly

Compose & Be Composed
 
CALL:
 
I would write pretty if I
could --slim and curvy,
savvy and  ripped,  
pleasing to the I.
 
But God made me
this old way:
 
Didn't choose to be ugly.
Who would? No body
in his right mind.
 
RESPONSE from "May"
 
Given the chance and right
mind, I'd choose ugly most
days.
 
Why not go for those rough
edges that can get edited off
later?
 
That's  something pretty'll
never get, stomach fat or lost
on wrong  turns to be redirected
by an  editor's scalpel.

What I like about ugly
is that it has a unique sensibility
that pretty doesn't, a raucous
doesn't play-well-with-others
that keeps ugly more in-itself,
it's own grounding and sake,
while pretty's pretty for-itself.
 
Pretty doesn't need more traction
than pleasing, but ugly's got a
longer way to go if it wants to
sell you on some idea or
nick-nack.

If Sartre or Socrates were pretty,
people might've been too entranced
by their smooth skin to busy
themselves with arguing. Perhaps
there's something to be said for
the lazy eye and smelly toga.                 
                                         “MAY”