Ugly

Don’t deal with him when he is very drunk, unless he is ugly and the family needs your help. Wait for the end of the spree, or at least for a lucid interval. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition (Kindle Locations 1337-1338).

Pretty is is pretty does. Ugly is is ugly does.
Ugly causes the stomach to clinch,
makes physical abuse of the abuser
seem absolutely logical, ethical, practical.
How do we react to ugly? With hatred?
With contempt? Trying to ignore?
Or convinced we can change the ugly
because we care, because we want to
because we’re tough enough to will ugly attractive.
Ugly is ugly. We can’t change it,
can’t decrease it, can’t fix things
for anybody else.
All we can do is live a life of beauty,
of unugly, of doing well, of serenity
and allow those who see us to find
that in seeing us, in knowing us,
they can find their pretty, too.

ugly