Vanity

The ruse of status symbols

Though counterfeit self-worth

Suggests one can appendage

To the self glitz, gold, and girth

Such is the lure of glamour

Though provocative or sheik

Regardless of what people wear

Soft flesh is underneath

The soul cannot be fused to clothes

Which wear and tare no doubt

We all enter life naked

And shall likewise exit out

Still many paint their faces

And some starve all to be thin

Some gamble life with surgeons

Hoping their self-love to win

How odd that worldly “beauty”

Covers-up what’s underneath

How can this lead to love of self

With shame of self ensheathed?

Can gold add to our stature?

Or anything it buys?

Are style and taste the privilege

Of the rich and “civilized”?

Then why employ poor “underlings”

And profit from their lives?

Are these not they that build the rich

Their castles in the skies?

Possession and production

Are as different as can be

A thief can possess sounding brass

But craftsmen the brass ring

For worth of gold is based

On what it can be in skilled hands

‘Tis riches of the soul

That bequeaths wealth throughout the land

The shell of worldly vanity

Seeks things to supplement

A gaping hole of emptiness

And truth to circumvent

Can such reveal our essence?

Or gauge what we are worth?

Then why serve these false idols

Sacrificing soul’s rebirth

One does not need to bolster

That which stands up by itself

Or lift up what is obvious

Nor magnify true wealth

For that which needs support is weak

And frauds pull others down

To stand upon the shoulders

Who have feet upon the ground

To magnify the miniscule

Will never change its size

Add substance to the soul through love

And self-love multiplies