Epistemology of Beauty

Aribam Surjeet Sharma
I, a creature made of flesh and blood,
Find the beauty of flesh and blood
In the other gender very very irresistible
Something biologically conditioned.

Yes, some say, such beauty is skin deep
And inner beauty issuing from the soul
Is the fountainhead of true beauty.
But, as I see it, both kinds of beauty
Have their significance and sway,
One spiritual and the other biological.

If both kinds of beauty reside in a being
We have an example of angelic beauty--
Something very rare, if at all, in our world.
Yet, if I had to choose between them,

I would prefer to go for inner beauty
For, as the wheel of time rolls on and on,
It can make furrows on physical beauty,
But, not even a scratch on inner beauty.