He Changed

For the moment, he looked
Different, slants of brown light
Reflected off those eyeglasses,
A look new to him, one
Of depth, not the usual
Blustery sort of get-it-over-with
Attitude.

Whereas before he might move quickly,
Impatiently, logging on, so to speak,
To his own computer, and you
Weren’t allowed to watch.

His secretive, noisy phase was gone, but
The new look advertised itself
With silence, a thoughtfulness
Implied.

So I asked him, had he done
With pretense then? Had he
Stopped being like the quirky
Pigeon, a bit of the egotist,
Put off by slang, but
Using it all the same?

His silence at first bothered me,
But he willed himself to begin, sat back,
Told me about the surprise note
Sent him by email,
A note he took to heart.