2. The Quiet Boy

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He appeared altogether, compact, contained.
But she sensed behind his eyes, through the tilt of his profile.

The sorrow that leaked through the seams he tried to seal.

 

A gaze still carried a quiet longing
that someone might see him
without taking,
without demanding,
without asking him to pay with a currency he never possessed.

 

She loved him before she knew that feeling as love

not romantic love,
but the careful regard one feels for something rare
that the world is careless with.

 

She cared for him as though he were a caged creature,
one sudden movement away from retreat.