You floated down and touched us
Your graceful fingers held
A dove with wings of pureness
By love and light propelled
We took you in our circle
And lavished you with praise
Your words and gestures gentle
Of chaste, old-fashioned ways
But soon your veils descended
Into the vat of dye
Life's bubbling, boiling cauldron
And came up full of lies
You were a purple angel
The kind men fear and dread
So pure and caring seeming
Yet chained to purple threads
You floated down and touched us
Your graceful fingers held
A Trojan Horse, a decoy
That we at last expelled.
Liilia Talts Morrison
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/purple-angel/
