Tonight's Poet Corner: Sonnet Solstice #34

I Cannot Hate Her
by Belinda Roddie

I cannot hate her for her face - her looks
are as irrelevant as the blue sky
when you are in the wrong mood to smile. Books
should not be judged by covers, but what lies
beneath the folds of paper, where the print
leaks out from eyelids, narrow noses, ears
or broad foreheads and faces oddly pinched.
I could perhaps dislike her for her jeers
at boy or girl who she perhaps perceives
as lower than her. I could abhor that
she breaks poor hearts, or cruelly steals, or cheats,
or lies to people whose souls are left cracked
and broken, pieces all over the place -
but I could never hate her for her face.