Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity

Artwork: Vanitas - Natalie Shau, year unknown

remember:
you are dust
to dust you
will return.

you resort
to the
paint-pot,
the surgeon,
the mask
to hide
your
uglinesses

it does not
change
a
thing:

you're hideous:
rotting flesh
stinking,
reeking
beneath rich
perfumes,
salves,
unguents.

your heart
is rotten,
your soul
is black,
your mind
filled
with the
maggots,
the vermin
of slander,
of envy,
of greed,
of lust,
of hate.

how i
wish:
someone
would strip
you
of your
pretensions,
your follies,
your lies,
your false -
blatantly fake -
pieties,
your power-plays
your pitiful
mockable
mockeries...

...and
show
that you
are little
more
than the
devil's
precious
little
whore.