Beauty Marks

Love and loss
sit at the corners of her eyes
And on the corners of her cheeks
Is where laughter and happiness lie
Marks on her arms, breasts and thighs because as weight came and went her body had to adjust and revise

Scars of pain on her stomach
as her skin stretched
from bearing children
Eye bags of sleepless nights remind her she's fallen many times
But many times, she has also risen

Time is present
in every crevice of her being
Proof she's lived,
and proof her life has meaning
she has experienced
many successes and losses
Her marks are unique and lawless

the story they tell
is that of horror, love, magic, panic, excitement, joy, grief, anxiety, sobriety, addiction, loss, guilt and time.
and so i embrace each mark with compassion
because those marks are memories
and those memories are mine.