though my eyes I thought I had kept closed
you discovered my deepest hard-kept secret
light locked within me shone out
and you
at last
understood
secret
I asked an old one the secret of life and they said
thoughts and words and feelings
companionship and friendship and loving
but most of all
yes most of all
blood and sweat and honey
she must have been
she never told me
she loved me
she must have been better
than me
at keeping secrets
Can you keep a secret
Can you keep a secret,
tight-lipped, tight-tongued, tight-throated?
Can you keep a secret
with your life?
I can’t.
I blab when I know
I’m not meant to,
I tease and trail excitement
at far too soon a time.
Can you keep a secret?
I can’t.
The only way to keep me quiet
is to
Seville 2
sharing
not daring
secrets
our truth
The secret of the longlasted love
The secret of the longlasted love is known
in its fiery potential
by the young and the breathless and sweet
I could warn you of its future
but perhaps
you would not believe me
The secret of the longlasted love is known
in the mid age
in the touch and go and stay
I could write you a letter or some lines
but perhaps
you would not want to read me
The secret of the longlasted love is known
only to the old
when the memories and razored caresses have scarred
I could tell you the history of it
but perhaps
you would remember
how everything was different
“Once I had a secret love”
“Once I had a secret love.” They stopped washing up and drying and twirled around the room. “My secret love’s no secret any more.”
Whispered secrets
Whispered secrets rise from flames,
tide down through clear rivers,
across the seas, round mountains,
they find a home that is safe. Here.
As she walked slowly out of the doctor’s room
As she walked slowly out of the doctor’s room, a shadow shaded across her face. It matched the patch in her chest.
She did not want to tell them the news, share the picture buried deep in her bag. Deep in her heart she knew that she should but she was afraid that their hearts would break. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she would.
For today she would keep her silence, and smile, and nod, and cough quietly into a handkerchief. For today, today, they did not need to know.
But they knew. Of course they knew. They knew it sharply deep inside of them, it cut them sharp and deep inside of them, they felt the broken glass in her breathing in their hearts.
But for today she would not tell them.
Secret
Green was the colour of the angels as they swept down, swords trailing sparks which tumbled like falling stars and settled in our upturned eyes. I do not know why they left the children alive; we did not deserve it.
Many years later, when the red sky had returned to morning, my grandmother, just before dying, whispered to me the secret of the family.
With my sister I went to the forge on the bank of the shining river and in the ashes found my sword. I shook off my cloak and unfurled my green wings. The sky closed forever.
First published on http://www.101fiction.com 01March 2015
simonsalento 