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SURFACE-WORDS

When we still spoke in pleasantries

And surface-words and light conforming smiles;

When by subtle accident I saw

A swift-corrected eagerness that shone and died

Like the brief signal of a fire-fly;

When I first pierced your languid gestures of false nonchalance,

And saw you as a soul without defenses-

Youthfully vulnerable to warmth or need,

Valiantly building barricades against the world

Only to see them crumble-

It was then, I think, that I began to love you.

L. P.

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