Concealment

From the Evening Star, June 6, 1913.
 By Philander Johnson.
 

 When Arabella talks to Jim
 She thinks, while glancing up at him,
 “There is a man of heart and brain
 Worth any lass’ while to gain.
 I’d like to have him in my care
 And fix his neckties and his hair.”
 Yet this is all she has to say:
 “It is a pleasant day, today.”
 
 And Jim, with feelings all intense,
 Thinks, “There’s a girl of real sense,
 And pretty as the flowers in spring,
 And sweet of voice as birds that sing.
 There’s not a chance that she could be
 Attracted by a chap like me.”
 So this is all Jim has to say:
 “It IS a pleasant day, today.”
 
 So, as the years too swift have fled,
 They’ve left their real thought unsaid.
 It is the custom of mankind
 A timid refuge thus to find
 When some frank sentiment intrudes,
 A refuge in dull platitudes.
 We slight the best of life and say
 “It is a pleasant day, today.”