Wizened Cruelty took a walk one day
Alone as usual,
He met joyful Innocence
Laughing her way through the somber woods


He stood watching her careless childish play,
And regarded with amusement
The happiness draining from her sunlit face
He asked; "Are you simply stupid"?

"Isn't it time you grew up child"?
Gravely she watched him, her little head tilted to one side.
Still and trembling,
She listened…

His savage eyes assessed her ruthlessly.
What are you saving yourself for?
How long will you deny your own deepest gutter longings?
Aren't you the little dreary mouse,

Waiting for your mythical prince to appear
And honour your dull fidelity,
When we all know you possess a whores heart

Tell me he said, with a sardonic twist of the lip,
What good are you to anyone?
All those men deprived of your youthful juices,
Because of your tiresome declarations of high virtue.



Slowly, he bent his saturnine face close....
Whispering dark cruel truths
Of base longings and
Carnal desires.

Quietly, she stood up on tiptoes,
Kissed his cheek, softly whispering
I love... you see
For whatever that is worth to any man


And Innocence went off ....laughing
Leaving wizened Cruelty
Alone..