The Curse of Beauty

Published in The American Library of Poetry · Fall 2025 issue

Inspired by Black Swan, this poem explores the destructive relationship between perfectionism, ambition, and identity. Through the journey of a dancer consumed by her pursuit of beauty, it examines the blurred boundaries between light and darkness, innocence and obsession, and the cost of ambition.

A vulnerable girl who now resembles skin and bone, 
Trapped within an unforgiving game,
She dances for perfection's shadow
To become one with a fearful frame.

With every move, she spirals and she bends.
Where once hope reverses into madness, and never ends.
Yet in the depth of her craving, never once was there light.

With each haunting reflection,
She seeks her rival who is now so near.
A fraction of her shooting with fear.
Her manic scream breaks the mirror, 
Displaying the truth in the shards of broken glass.

Ambition’s toll,
The immense weight.
Hanging around the white swan's neck.
Her essence, purity, and youth
Now gone.
For beauty is a curse
That cannot be reversed.

What remains is only a shaken breath
A heartbreaking lamentation,
A dance with death.

Now we are witnesses to the passion 
The darkness soaked in light.
Envy is the one.
Masked by great beauty
The culprit who caged her flight.

The story is told,
What’s done is done.
But the question remains 
Were darkness and light always just one?