In the Eyes of Outsiders

Theirs was a good relationship
-- If you could even call it as such --
It was the sort of thing that an outsider would call
'Significant'
Something done in sepia ink
Or a silent film
With very few words involved altogether
(and those that were involved would, of course
be the sort that could have been found in any
high-level philosopher's journal)

They made a pretty picture
Something nice to look at
But a reality that must have been boring to live

But in the end
An outsider could not have understood it

It might look like silence would
'Click' with them
That it would be a comfortable thing to
Fa-a-all         ,back on
-- and it was --
But if you strip off the sound
You miss all the books read aloud in the library at night
(when they should have rightly been in bed)
And the softly spoken conversations that often ended in
Mischievous amusement because of the secrets only they knew

There is something to be said for
Being content in understated security
They did not have to be constantly confronted with passion
To know it was there

No, an outsider simply couldn't have understood that
And maybe that was a bit of the romance in it, too