Inside Information (Poetry)

We know you’re not as lovely on the inside —
so perfectly proportioned in your mind,
generous of heart, your ruling spirit
as gracious as the light on you is kind.

Your empathy with film makes you iconic,
the essence of your age caught on a roll
unwinding truth but questioning the ethic —
how beauty hides a less than spotless soul.

We’re all beguiled by looks that seem so candid —
uncomposed, that wide disarming smile,
its warmth assumed indigenous to magic —
such pretexts fool, but only for a while.

The character beneath has regions colder
than any questing camera ever found,
the angel on the surface shines but thinly
while shadows haunt the darker, private ground.

When unobserved, your mood is close to careless —
almost cruel in your naivity —
your eyes betray impatience, disillusion,
you slip your shell, reveal the ordinary.

Despite the purity that thrills the artist,
inside you’re little different from your peers —
knowingness and innocence in conflict,
confident you’re wiser than your years.

But time will pilfer all your youthful treasure,
vanity can’t stop its thieving tide,
so comb life’s beach for seeds of understanding
and grow a truer beauty from inside.