I am very happy within my skin Beauty's gone but not from within
Please do not survey with any scorn The creased jacket in which I was born

The same old heart beats and pumps Yeah, even though I am full of lumps
Bumps too that are an awful show Upon sun drenched sands I dare go

Skinny dipping of days so long past How was I to know it would never last
So now I wish not to display in a bikini Limbs looking like a gnarled zucchini

Oh yes I am happy within my old skin Devouring chips, that occasional sin
Why should I worry about a pimply spot Considering it's on top of what I've got

Yeah, the same heart beats and pumps Blood around my limbs of fatty stumps
Also through ins outs and even gaps It surges through legs veined like maps

It is true I have broken so many a scale Yes I look akin to a large beached whale
You may visualise me and give a shudder But this was a gift from my loving mother

Still I am happy within my aged skin. Beauty in my heart still lives therein
And so I end this verse, my poetic tale. I hope you laugh with this wrinkly whale



By Linda Bayley-Brown