THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN

​The most beautiful woman
is unknown. You did not know
the most beautiful woman in 1984.
She was my mother.

My mother chose my father
who was not the town king
of my mother’s town when she was queen,
but lord he knew what he wanted.

My mother was wise
before she was queen.
I saw her rise in the mornings
and make herself Woman
and Teacher before the mirror.

I did not know what it meant
to be Woman, to be Teacher,
until I read the beauty magazines
and changed every woman’s
picture with my mother’s face.

Would the most beautiful woman
elected by the most beautiful magazine
walk the ugliest street and make it alive
to the Book of Guinness?

Would the most beautiful woman --
undressed and without hairbrush or film crew --
walk the earth for every ugly thing that’s made
her beauty worth $12million?
​
The most beautiful woman
is unknown. And naked and free
in a jungle outside New York.

_____

+ Magdalene Carmen photographed by Damien Smith

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