You are the best I know, are wanted words
but dangerous to those who feel unloved
when spoken by admired who undergirds
desires that habit on the weak has shoved.

Two innocents respond but not alike.
Withdrawn the fearful one imagines scars.
Emboldened fearless seeks the unknown strike.
And both are restless, caged by unseen bars.

Dim memory at last yields up a clue,
enkindling hope of resolution found,
and chance provides a meeting of the two
who speaking truth become unbound more bound.

Demeaning secret kept will steer a life
to grim expected unexpected strife.

- Robert Stone, 19 August 2012