makeupbrutalism
Instagram-inspired poetry
makeupbrutalism
my compatriot Eszter
is ugly makeup’s queen —
proud proprietor of Instagram’s
most hated beauty account
since twenty eighteen
she draws inspiration
from an oft-maligned aesthetic —
of concrete-slab architecture
at once soul-crushing and
machine-age poetic
corneas covered
in sloppy Day-Glo eyeliner —
close-ups cluttered with all manner
of household kitsch
Dada designer
clumpy mascara
graffiti-ed, tin-foiled teeth —
eyes dressed up in chains,
goo and food scraps
above and beneath
what good is maquillage
that women imprison —
the face as a protest sign:
“if this is makeup” she asks
“then, what isn’t”