Women

A short poem by Tuxedo Jack

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People say women are beautiful when they smile.
I can't tell.
People say women are beautiful when their eyes
 Sparkle like loose gems on velvet.
I don't care.
People say women are beautiful when their hair flies
 Back in the wind.
It doesn't matter to me.
For now, I am desolate, and I care not to 
 Gaze lovingly upon beauty.

Just be friends
See other people
End it here
I've heard them all.

And if I continue, I'll hear them again.
And they will wound me
As a dagger 'cross my wrists.
My happiness, my peace,
My life, my soul,
Spilling out over the ruins,
The ruins that once pulsed.

So I ask myself,
"Why do I go on?
Why do I endure
The misery and suffering
Around me?"

And the answer comes to me,
Almost divine in its clarity.
"You go on because you are.
You cannot escape the pain
Because you are the one
Who causes it."

And as it sinks into my consciousness
I laugh
At the futility
At the beauty
At the smile of Fate
Aw her eyes, the brilliant facets of a gem
At her "just be friends"
And I realize

That women are beautiful when they smile.
But none smile for me.

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8/19/02
TuxedoJack@juno.com