Too Wild

I knew someone who was broken by the world,
And yet did her best, tried not to let it show.
She smiled at people, and her hair was curled,
And now and then she would suddenly let go
A cry of anguished pain or a sharp burst of tears,
Or speak about suicide, confirming all our fears.

And I knew someone who was wild, too wild,
And though he could be as charming as a satyr,
He could also behave easily like a spoiled child,
And some sometimes called him a woman-hater.
But I had seen him snapping, both in hate and love,
And it seemed to me that he placed neither above

The way that he reacted of his own heart and choice,
And spoke what he honestly thought was the truth.
He talked too much, loving the sound of his own voice,
And he had all the rashness and the fire of youth.
But he spoke the truth in the same way she cried:
Because truth was what he was made of, inside.

They came together, one night at a friend's party,
When she had been crying, tears down each cheek
Gleaming like pearls, making false all the hearty
Voices encouraging her. She didn't look weak
But fragile, provoking not pity but compassion,
And all of us wanted to help, in our own fashion.

But then he walked up to her, and spoke the words
That echo still in my head, that I can never forget.
"You weep and weep, and they twitter like birds.
Can't you get over your poor little troubles yet?"
She stared at him, and others leaped forward to defend,
Ranging from her fiancé to my own best friend,

Saying that she was recovering from such abuse
That he could never imagine it, that he was a child
To think that her tears needed a reason or excuse.
He shrugged, and his eyes were wild, too wild.
"I have," he said, "some unwanted advice for you.
You can choose to live as you have been, that is true,

"Or you can rejoin the world, which doesn't cry
Every time someone is hurt, or when someone dies.
I don't care who hurt you, and I won't ask why.
But there comes a year when the tears and the sighs,
The whimpers and the whispers, get on my nerves.
You've passed my tolerance. The universe curves

"Around you because others offer you support.
But not everyone does. I just wanted you to know."
He turned and walked away from the queen's court,
Out the door, and into the midst of swirling snow,
Leaving her shocked, and, a moment later, crying,
Weeping from the heart as if she were dying.

I stood there, watching, and watching him depart,
And knew that he was horrible, of course he was wrong.
But there was a strange stirring in my deep heart,
And for some reason I drew away from the song
Of comfort they sang for her as she wept like a child,
And thought of eyes and words wild, too wild.