The Brutal Beauty of Life

Every day 

I am confronted 

by the brutal beauty 

of life 

Life is sharp 

Love is messy 

Joy is costly 

Sorrow is heavy 

Grief is ugly 

And still life keeps arriving 

uninvited 

unfiltered 

unapologetic 

It breaks you 

kneads you 

shapes you 

molds you 

presses its fingerprints 

into the softest parts of you 

It does not relent 

simply because 

I wish it would

nor pause 

to ask permission 

before making me 

again 

Yet in its jagged edges

I find the places

where light catches

and refuses to let go—

thin seams of brightness 

threaded through 

the fractures 

Sometimes 

I mistake the breaking 

for punishment 

until I see 

how the shattered pieces 

rearrange themselves 

into something 

I can finally recognize 

And somehow 

all of it belongs 

to the radiance 

of that brutal beauty—

the way life wounds, 

the way life heals, 

the way it insists 

on being both 

 

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

September 1, 2026