just ugly

A lady came up to me the other day,
as if she was purposely seeking me out. 
"Are you sick?" she asked 
with what appeared to be
deep concern and alarm 
in her eyes.
I looked at her confused. 
"No", I replied slowly. 
And it dawned on me. 
I did have
not one ounce of makeup up on 
that morning, 
most of my lashes have all but fallen out,
maybe i did appear..rough.
dead perhaps. 
sickly. 
"it's just-" she plowed on, 
as if she heard me say 
yes instead of no,
"your face. you look, well, i just thought 
you weren't feeling well.."
I paused.
"No, i'm not sick. I just look like this."
We both wanted nothing more 
than to escape 
this entire conversation. 
so we did.