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All men are angels. Angels of literature, who make mistakes. Did Lucifer have a map of his fall on his face? Could you tell by his eyes how he used to celebrate his birthday? "All wars are crimes," says a general who has fought three. What makes boys different is that they are too young to have committed many. They carry no lines of regret, laughter, sadism. They are the deceptive angels, the ones still in heaven, who as yet bear no marks of their descent. Their hands have no scars or calluses from swinging the blade of justice and retribution, or raising a caustic grey shield of wit against those who see in black and white. The feathers of their wings have not sloughed off and left scales on the scabs. They are not yet stone all the way through, with canyons carved over the surface in the paths of their tears. Old angels are involuntarily honest.
All men are angels. Angels of literature, who make mistakes. Did Lucifer have a map of his fall on his face? Could you tell by his eyes how he used to celebrate his birthday? "All wars are crimes," says a general who has fought three. What makes boys different is that they are too young to have committed many. They carry no lines of regret, laughter, sadism. They are the deceptive angels, the ones still in heaven, who as yet bear no marks of their descent. Their hands have no scars or calluses from swinging the blade of justice and retribution, or raising a caustic grey shield of wit against those who see in black and white. The feathers of their wings have not sloughed off and left scales on the scabs. They are not yet stone all the way through, with canyons carved over the surface in the paths of their tears. Old angels are involuntarily honest.
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