I am Beautiful.@I am Beautiful

This post won the second runner-up position at the Real Beauty Blogger contest. It was originally published at http://applestrudle-dollz.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-am-beautiful.html

My skin isn't fair,
Neither my limbs soft nor delicate,
My hair doesn't fall like a curtain along the eye,
My features non-descript,

My lips too thin,
My body isn't what it used to be,
Two children have come out of it,
My name wouldn't ring a bell,
Or feature in a fashion magazine,

My days are spent juggling home and work,
Nights spent worrying about a hundred mundane things,
Most days I like to be told,
I am managing just fine,
But the glasses of expectation are worn so high,

The radiance of inner beauty,
Is a mere blob on the virtual sky.
A not so perfect complexion and the ravages of time,
May shake me up a little,
Make me long for approval,

Don fashionable clothes, 
To shake off the flab
Style my hair differently,
To appear as young as I can,

Yet, underneath I still look the same,
Lovely as any woman can be,
The steel of my determination,
The seed of my womb,
The sweet surrender of my being,
Makes the world go around,

My age doesn't matter, 
My looks don't count,
I am beautiful is all I know,
And if I don't believe in me,
Why would you