Body Armor / Michael H. Hanson

Body Armor

For one brief, terrible moment
the glow of beauty’s lottery
winner is shaded by eclipse

and existential broidery
that strips away every pretense
and all of fate’s harsh slavery
disrobing without and within
beyond mundane cajolery
that pulls the curtain from her face
a tactless psychic surgery
leaving her nakedly distraught
a most fragile menagerie.

Exposed for an eternity
or one second
of brief despond
now garbed in sweet serenity.