I never thought you could be anything but ostentatious.
With your mulish pride
And your swaggering ways,
You led us all to believe that
You were paramount and unbreakable
Ever so munificent with raucous words that stung,
You knew just how to twist the knife
If looks could kill, I think half the world
Would have died a long time ago
Your ominous stare rebuked everyone but your friends,
Daring someone to defy you
You were always so quick to anger-
Polemic and patronizing in the same moment-
I've always wondered what it was that you defended so viciously.
I, being a paragon of rectitude,
Had always harbored the impossibly quixotic notion
That goodness was inherent in us all
Never would I have known that you were so hidden in despair
But for the mercurial storms simmering in your eyes
I can see the nuances in your cracked smile,
Your strained indifference
Your nails are bitten down to the quick and you think
No one knows