Jamilah Jolie Poem by Ali Rahimi

Jamilah Jolie had done it over and over again,
Yesterday, the day before yesterday, last week, last year,
Every minute,
Looked at the mirror,
Felt like Andersen’s ugly duckling,
Felt she had a face only her mother likes,
ugly as sin,
In sadness, uncertainty, and exasperation,
Jamilah Jolie took a look at
The lips, the hair, the neck, the irregular train of alabaster teeth,
the legs, even erogenous zones, the butt, the boobs,
the forbidden territories,
her curves could be appetizing,
but probably too big to the onlookers’ lustful meticulous eyes,
‘’Small is beautiful, or big is beautiful? ‘’ she contemplated,
The eyes, like those of a mole’s, she thought,
Eyebrows, thick black bushes,
The nose, hell, looked like a camel’s,
The forehead, like a farmland with furrows, holes and lines,
The boobs like big Iranian watermelons,
The butt like a sack of Danish cheese,
Looked at her tummy, a massive pile of shit,
Thought of Mayra Rosales, Kenneth Brumley or Mills Darden,
Her enemy number one: the mirror on the wall,
Jamilah Jolie wants to be the most beautiful of all,
Travelled to Singapore for Botox cosmetics, eyebrow lift, laser skin,
Hungary, Germany for facelift, liposuction, breast reduction, butt implant,
Thailand for cheek implants and a nose job,
U.S. for the eyes and lip augmentation, body contouring, hair transplant,
As she knew Joan Rivers had done it before,
Looked at the mirror again,
Inspected all curves, angles, shades, flashing buttocks, inviting tits,
Jamilah Jolie felt like Venus, Aphrodite, Helen of Troy, a goddess of beauty,
Narcissus, and screamed in joy:
Wow, I am majestically beautiful! , absolutely sexy! ,
I am breathtaking! , drive men crazy now! ,
Self love, self-adoration, self-congratulation, perfect beauty, impeccable, flawless body, an emotional fish,
Friends and associates though,
Were alienated, intimidated, eclipsed,
Too beautiful to be true!
They all gave her a short shrift, kept away,
In total solitude, deep depression and bulimia, obsession, psychosis,
Contemplated possible suicide methods,
Drowning, hanging, jumping from height,
Pesticides, metro collision, guillotine, fire, electrocution,
Opted for incapacitation of the nervous system,
By overdose of sleeping pills and a bottle of vodka,
to look most beautiful,
In the eyes of Nemesis, the Grim Reaper, friends and foes alike!
Incredibly beautiful indeed!
Jamilah’s body was spotted by the maid,
With a glass in hand, lying beautifully near a bottle of Valium, sheets of pills, Temazepam, the anticonvulsant hypnotic Diazepam,
Blue Oyster Cult’s song “Don’t fear the Grim Reaper’’
Was still playing in her room,
Elizabeth Taylor, Marylin Monroe, Sophia Loren,
Jennifer Lawrence, Rania, Monica Bellucci, Lupita Nyong'o, Priyanka Chopra, Ajda Pekkan, Googoosh,
Smiling on the walls.