Villains

When they said
in storybooks and comic books
that a villain
"can't love",
I used to think
that their heart was a fire,
engulfed in hate;
that their interaction with the world outside their brain
was nothing more than a detestation,
abject loathing -
a rejection, if you will -
of the innate goodness
of the human condition.

Or I also thought that
"can't love"
meant that their heart was a stone:
solid, permanent,
inflexible,
unfeeling,
and unaffected by the outside world;
not a fiery inferno of hate,
not a smouldering coal of resentment,
just a cold, hard, unchanging
stone.

But I have since learned that
"can't love"
doesn't have to be the firestorm of hatem
or the cold stone of unfeeling,
but it can also be
the startled kitten of fear,
the small curled up ball that doesn't trust anything, anyone
won't trust anything, anyone
can't trust anything, anyone
because it's been kicked once
and doesn't want
to be kicked
again.