National Poetry Month - 2013 -- 30-Day Writing Challenge -- Day 1

I'm taking part in the National Poetry Month 30-day writing challenge -- better known in the blogging community as "NaPoWriMo - 2013." For any of you who are not familiar with NaPoWriMo, it is simply a challenge to write one poem a day for the 30 days of April. Maureen Thurson, from Washington, D. C.,  is the originator of the blogsite that hosts the challenge, and you can visit that site to get all the particulars at this link: http://www.napowrimo.net/.

Each day, Maureen gives poets a particular prompt to spur them on, but the prompts are just suggestions. Poets can feel free to write any kind of poem they like, without considering the prompt at all if they prefer.

Day 1 prompted us to write a poem with the same first line as an already famous poem, so I chose "She walks in beauty like the night," by Lord Byron.  Here's my poem:

She Walks In Beauty??? 

She walks in 'beauty,' like the night,
But morning hours she feels a fright.
She cannot seem to get it right
'Til she's worked hours in mirror's light.

Each day she wakes with cheerful sun,
Then looks in mirror and feels undone.
How can she venture forth for fun
'Til make-up's on that weighs a ton?

She struggles to impress the crowd
And hold her head up high and proud,
To make sure she is not a dowd,
But 'neath the load her heart is bowed.

 Because she feels she must comply
With this world's rampant beauty lies:
"Wear this on lips and that on eyes,
And starve that waist, those hips and thighs. 

"Walk tall on heels that are quite frail,
And don't forget those fingernails.
Stuck on with glue that cannot fail,
All fear of fungus kept curtailed. 

"Now bleach those teeth until they shine –
Until your smile the sun would blind.
Don't button top; wear loose neckline,
So lots of cleavage you can find."

And on she goes at each day's light,
So stressed and strained to do it 'right' --
To find acceptance in world's sight,
For deep inside there is a fright.

She fears and doesn't have a clue,
That deep inside a beauty true
Awaits its chance to make debut,
If she'd but to herself be true.

~