The Two Faces of Eve

I was cruising the Internet,
Talking on the chat lines,
Looking for old friends
When I came across a name
That intrigued me
So I dropped her a line.

She took my bait
And when she responded,
We did the usual thing,
Preliminary qualification,
Sex, age, location
And availability.

It didn’t take long to establish
That we at least had
Something in common
Which is a good place to start.
It was relatedness we sought,
A sense of intimacy.

She came on strong
And maybe a little fast.
I sent her my poems
And she sent me a picture
A little more revealing than most
Saying that was who she was!

I began to suspect
There was more to her
Than met the eye.
What I was looking for
Beyond that hard exterior
Was who she really was.

Thus we conversed about
What she really wanted in life,
Who she hoped to find
For I got that she was searching,
And how she hoped it would be
Once she found that guy.

Then I ask her
What it had been like so far
And what I heard was
Resignation and defeat,
A disappointment with life,
A deep pervasive sadness.

I came away with a sense
That somewhere below
That brash exterior
Lies a scared and lonely girl,
Not who she pretends to be,
But someone she wants no one to see.

It is one of the secrets of life
That you can’t find love on the outside
Until you find it on the inside,
And vulnerability is the key
To a relationship
That will set her free.

It is one of the paradoxes of life
That we build a façade
To protect us from hurt,
And it is the false show
That hurts us more than
Honesty and trust ever could.

Now I don’t know
If telling her this
Will help or hurt
But this is how
She occurred to me,
The two faces of Eve