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Sonnets From Other Lives: Norma

Many people took her for a fool.
Most likely it was all those wide-eyed questions.
The answers came back with a cruel
edge of sarcasm & that expression
of superiority that stupid people have
when failing to see their stupidity.
For a time these moments mad her sad.
But in a moment of lucidity,
it struck her she’d been leading them all on
letting them believe their condescension.
What can you do? She’s just a dumb blonde.
She was too kind puncture their pretensions—
too shy to confront them, so instead
she turned into everything they said.