There's a girl I've known

With dark hair and pale lips,

A childhood friend grown

With no glasses or clips.

Nothing I knew her as

Was the same again.

I saw her small figure pass

Below the window pane,

Small mouth curved

And slim fingers in pockets

Like the one I loved.

Walls of steel like lockets

Around a tender heart

That knew nothing bad

Of the world and its part.

I sighed, but I was glad

That after all these years

She'd come back here

To the place which bears

A transparent clear —

To the place which has

Someone like me

So insensitive and crass

Who couldn't bear to be.

I saw a small smile

Come to her face

From here all the mile.

I couldn't brace

My inner feelings

Against the churning tide

Of no greetings

That took me on a ride.

Memories in this mind —

Photographs on a stand

Like foggy eyes blind.

Unbelievably banned

From gazing at her features

Like a student at a clock

Bored of his teachers

And the schedule block.

There's no play there

No joke — nothing.

Anything here

Is only but an inkling.

My heart skipped beats

At the sight of her,

Nearing its highest peaks

That it made a tear.

I couldn't look

At that same girl

Because something took

Her treasured pearl —

Her truth, her affection.

I saw none of it — none.

I wandered in a direction

That rendered me done.

A darkness came

While she was gone,

Acting as if lame

And as a wolf — lone.

I had not seen it.

I had not noticed

That it's fire had lit

A place that ticked —

A place that held

All sanity in a glance

That would've never bled

Her secrets to an ace.

She was gone.

I could at least see that.

It was too done

Like a magician's hat

Had pulled reality

Into some depraved fantasy

Of just disparity.

I became pasty

And I wondered why

A girl so lovely like her

Came home to cry

Behind the smiling mask she wore.