"That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark..."

Manipulation and deviousness with
no experience to keep it under control,
that’s your "tragedy" to me, dear girl.
I see a look of surprise, not painful heart-
break, as your face sinks beneath the rippling
surface of the pond, gasping in shock
that this act too has a consequence.

Don’t pretend it was my fault, people throw
away their lives because they want to, with the
same selfish zeal with which they lived behind
cold walls that justified their detachment.
The hole in your logic is obvious to me,
in that if you and your macabre family
truly believed what you spoke of me, how
could my response, in keeping with the
character you imagined, be so hurtful to you?

So, just like you dropped yourself into
the drink fully clothed to "drown" and
now find that beyond your control you
are doing just that, I will gladly move on
without you, just as you "knew" I would.
I’m sure you’ll con some into thinking
I was the bad guy, but they’ll never know
you like I did, or they’d understand that
a villain with a sweet face is still a villain.

I won’t stay to watch, but I wonder how
long you’ll keep the pre-Raphaelite look
on your face, as you sink


.........d o w n

...............d o w n

.....................d o w n

...........................with the other reptiles.

-- by Steve McKennon, 22 March 2005

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