Beauty In Trouble Poem by gershon hepner

Beauty, when it is in trouble,
must take whatever steps it takes
to get out of the trouble bubble,
ignoring all its past mistakes.
Good angels don’t exist and bad
are plentiful, and beauty must
rely on them. Though ironclad,
good resolutions turn to dust
when beauty is in trouble, and
therefore it must be most flex-
ible; you must not reprimand
it when it finds relief in sex.

For saints the market isn’t bullish,
but all the world agrees that sinners
are far more friendly and less foolish,
and, when beautiful, the winners.
To say that virtue is its own
reward is quite an under-
statement: till it’s overthrown
an unmitigated blunder.
In trouble, beauty has to know
this fact; the only way it can
get out of trouble’s afterglow
is foreplay with a wealthy man.

Inspired by a review of a Czech movie directed by Jan Hrebejk, “Beauty In Trouble, ” whose title was inspired by the title of a poem by Robert Graves, with whom Linda used to be in love:

Beauty in trouble flees to the good angel
On whom she can rely
To pay her cab-fare, run a steaming bath,
Poultice her bruised eye;
Will not at first, whether for shame or caution,
Her difficulty disclose;
Until he draws a cheque book from his plumage,
Asking her how much she owes;
(Breakfast in bed: coffee and marmalade,
Toast, eggs, orange-juice,
After a long, sound sleep - the first since when? -
And no word of abuse.)
Loves him less only than her saint-like mother,
Promises to repay
His loans and most seraphic thoughtfulness
A million-fold one day.
Beauty grows plump, renews her broken courage
And, borrowing ink and pen,
Writes a news-letter to the evil angel
(Her first gay act since when?) :
The fiend who beats, betrays and sponges on her,
Persuades her white is black,
Flaunts vespertilian wing and cloven hoof;
And soon will fetch her back.
Virtue, good angel, is its own reward:
Your dollars were well spent.
But would you to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment?


8/1/08