I'd nodded off that evening in the shade,
Alone; next thing I knew, beneath the rain
I woke, roused by the
sounds her shoes had made
Upon
the soggy pavement. She explained:
"I just read what you wrote to me --
at length --
And now I see your point: that throwing down
One's
shields is no great weakness, but real strength;
That sometimes, we must even
let be found
Those ugly secrets we all keep inside:
For true love, to be true,
must be entire,
Acquainted even with the faults we hide."
She left me then, for some place that was drier --
Musing, as she skipped across the pools,
"
I had him going there! That
April fool."