Poise - (Unfinished)

The neighborhood is dead silent save for a few chipper tweeting birds and the soft meticulous hum of mechanical pool cleaners, doing their duty.
She sits on the sparsely watered earthen mound that makes up her mother's front yard shaded by a tree so tall one must look to the heavens to see the end. To look at her, you immediately know she's one of those intellectual girls. The kind that look sweet and innocent pouring over their stacks of books books but bite back with an insultingly sharp intellect when challenged but with such poise your have to forgive her naivete.
At first glance that is.

But just by looking at her what can we really know?
The books she's holding. Is it a work of old literature or the latest romance novel found on the racks in the grocery store? Is it a coming of age analysis of society or is it a prepackaged murder mystery, complete with flat characters? Did she pick it up with a giant stack at the library or has she been working her way through the same novel for the better part of the year? Is it intellect we see, or boredom in disguise?
The skirt she wears is long, colorful - red, gold, and green. It reaches her ankles, nearly concealing the backs of her bare feet. Her shoulders are muscled but her thin, weak-looking arms do not reflect this. Her stomach curves forward slightly indicating either poor diet or lack or exercise or perhaps just unfortunate metabolism.
She looks healthy, but there are bags of worry under her eyes. One soon realizes she's not reading but looking, acting.
This is either a moment of deep thought or a moment of respite from whatever is plaguing her. The bags under her eyes maybe a result of stress or late nights or both.
Her hair is unruly. Did she forget to comb it? Or does she just not care?

But that's just it, isn't it? We'll never know, will we?
Unless we ask.
Unthinkable.



------

Unedited. I actually wrote this on my phone on my way to the library today.
Inspired by the incredible stillness my neighborhood acquires in the afternoons.