You're Beautiful

You're Beautiful because you're classically trained. ,
I'm ugly because I associate piano wire with strangulation. 
You're beautiful because you stop to read the cards in newsagents' windows about lost cats and missing dogs.
I'm ugly because of what 1 did to that jellyfish with a lolly-stick and a big stone 
You're beautiful because for you, politeness is instinctive, not a marketing campaign
I'm ugly because desperation is impossible to hide. 

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars. 

You're beautiful because you believe in coincidence and the power of thought.
I'm ugly because I proved God to be a mathematical impossibility 
You're beautiful because you prefer home-made soup to the packet stuff.
I'm ugly because once, at a dinner party, I defended the aristocracy and wasn't even drunk. 
You're beautiful because you can't work the remote control.
I'm ugly because of satellite television and twenty-four hour rolling news. 

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars. 

You're beautiful because you cry at weddings as well as funerals.
I'm ugly because I think .of children as another species from a different world. 
You're beautiful because you look great in any colour including red.
I'm ugly because I think shopping is strictly for the acquisition of material goods. 
You're beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet.
I'm ugly for saying 'love at first sight' is another form of mistaken identity and that the most human of all responses is to gloat. 

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars. 

You're beautiful because you've never seen the inside of a car-wash,
I'm ugly because I always ask for a receipt. 
You're beautiful for sending a box of shoes to the third world.
I'm ugly because I remember the telephone numbers of ex-girlfriends and the year Schubert was born. 
You're beautiful because you sponsored a parrot in a zoo.
I'm ugly because when I sigh it's like the slow collapse of a circus tent. 

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars. 

You're beautiful because you can point at a man in a uniform and laugh.
I'm ugly because I was a police informer in a previous life. 
You're beautiful because you drink a litre of water and eat three pieces of fruit a day.
I'm ugly for taking the line that a meal without meat is a beautiful woman with one eye. 
You're beautiful because you don't see love as a competition and you know how to lose.
I'm ugly because I kissed the FA Cup then held it up to the crowd. 

You're beautiful because of a single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan.
I'm ugly because I said the World's Strongest Woman was a muscleman in a dress. 
You're beautiful because you couldn't live in a lighthouse.
I'm ugly for making hand-shadows in front of the giant bulb, so when they look up, the captains of vessels in distress see the ears of a rabbit, or the eye of a fox, or the legs of a galloping black horse. 

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars. 

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.


[...]

'Once I've read that poem in a little pub, and a lady came to me afterwards and said 'Don't worry, I'm ugly as well.''



(Simon Armitage)

***

I appreciate how simplicity can turn very complex as you dare to dive inside the words. Furthermore it challenges the reader to create your own couplet as as extension of the poem.

Its unbelievable how a binary themed poem turns into the disambiguation of the binary structures themselves.



Simon Armitage is delicately blitzing the world.