it’s in your secret
vibrant line
downcast eyes
unhiding
excitement, doubt
(call it love
if it makes me feel
better)
for your hope-wracked youth
I’d give these thirty years
of carefully constructed
respectable life story
don’t tell me
star-crossed tales
just go
Graceful Press Poetry 
You write so beautifully Jennifer. I loved the lines “hope-wracked youth”, “carefully constructed respectable life story”.
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What a lovely thing to say, thank you!
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Downcast eyes / unhiding. Stellar.
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Thanks!
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This is lovely and gripping. The word choice is phenomenal.
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Thank you, Susan. 🙂
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I always enjoy reading your poems. Beautiful words.
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Thank you, Stacie. That makes me happy. 🙂
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Love the dismissal at the end. I know the narrator of this poem won the argument.
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The conflict here is so well portrayed – lyrical yet palpable. I really enjoy the rhythms you use, the punctuation/lowercase and the visual simplicity that still conveys complex concepts.
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I have to say, a week later the line “call it love if it makes me feel better” is still with me.
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Thanks for your sweet words. That line surprised me a bit while I was writing. 🙂
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You’ve built in so much twisting here that the end is just spectacular. Especially like:
‘downcast eyes
unhiding
excitement, doubt’
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