Reserve

We are surrounded by a constant and catalytic spectacle of exhibitionism and voyeurism. We like to see and we like to be seen, and why? Almost always, it is founded in a desire for endorsement. Look around you at almost any display of physical beauty and ask yourself whether said displayer is confident in said beauty. The answer is almost certainly no. The truly confident have no need to display their wealth. It is the insecure who make their facilities visible to the general public. They want to be told they are beautiful, smart, witty, et cetera. And this is why the rarest and most irresistible beauty is the hidden beauty, that beauty that offers itself only to the chosen few. So, do not make displays of yourselves. The wealth you possess is worth far more than that. And do not worry on endorsement and acceptance, for those who would appreciate you only when you are made a spectacle merit no attention at all.


Reserve

What beauty ever was as rare as yours,
to rest within a chamber, veiled so
from scrutiny? Such spoils of wars
as others are would make a feeble show

of passion, less requited than repaid.
The heavy lacquer of a thousand eyes
has settled on this stale masquerade
and set the striving higher than the prize.

But you are ever spotless as you were,
and eyes have not despoiled your wealth.
Your confidence is elegant and sure,
your poise, prepossessing in its health,

your vessel, irreplaceable in worth.
Spare vintage is a solitary plight.
Among the brazen pickings of the earth,
but one alone sustains a vestal light

and longs to see a longing flame return
the signal fire, manifest and pure.
Or have you found a sympathetic burn,
a conflagration worthy of concern,
to token in the realms of the obscure?