On Loveliness

I forget to write the letter Y 
in correct sequence to spell "psychology"
so I wind up second in the spelling bee. 

Psychology, the study of the mind and human 
behavior, is related to the word for essence 
and spirit. Say I am beautiful, say I am 

worthy, stop saying I'm sorry. Who made you 
feel less than? In the Greek myth, Psyche 
is another of those beautiful mortals 

for whom a goddess devises punishment, 
envious of her beauty. But Cupid wounds 
himself with his own arrow, and falls 

in love with her. The catch? a marriage 
consummated, but never in full light 
of day. When you look upon the face

of your beloved, are you singed with flame
and oil? For what is loveliness but a state 
of being beheld in the gaze of another.