So Beautiful

So Beautiful

as cruel
and foolish boys
we thought it was hilarious
for a while
to refer
to the ugly girls
as beautiful

it was our 
secret thing
between all us boys
the hilarity
in the disguised cruelty
of one thing
meaning
its opposite

we were too dumb
to know it then
but
today
i think
we call it 
irony

and today
most of us
have 
thankfully
outgrown 
that
childishness

but a few
still remain
stunted
having gone from girls
to other things
in a big boy's world
too dumb
sometimes
too confused
to understand
within their muddled
post-adolescent world
of irony
what
is truly beautiful
or not

so now
like the callow irony
of ugly girls
being beautiful
the clever ones
with their refined irony
like the same boys
stroking
to sleepwear models
in the sears catalog
are still
the same
cruel
and confused
cretins
they were 
back then