Here's a lesson for you people:
(here's a lesson for you all)
I know you've heard this before
so I'll try hard not to stall.

There's a measure that is owed
to the size and shape of us,
to how we preen and practice
and inspect our specks of dust.
"Dark that blush! Fake that grin!
"If you don't fix, then you won't win!"
We scream and yell, yell and scream,
without our words we say these things.

Looking and being are one--the same
and define our lot in life.
Some run to paint or to a game
or frightened to a knife,
and the rest just play along and say
"Just be like us, just follow the Way."

The ladies go too far—
the boys though, play it rough—
and squint their eye and scowl
toward what will never be enough.
There's a measure that is owed
to the way we look and walk,
but only so much as we pretend
and not so much as we truly talk.

Know your size and know your shape,
know you curves and flats;
but know as well your heart and soul
for in the end it's up to that.