Just a passing comment

As the family bible splayed across your lap

Whispered secrets between women

While he was in the bathroom

.

So quiet it’s as if I never heard it

Like my memories, evanescent

Did you say that?

Did it happen?

Was it

Just

My

Imagination?

.

Still, evidence, and pain

Persistent, throbbing at these roots daily

Fills out all the details

Of what I thought I heard you speak

Hush hush

Before he returns

The prisoner, that child

Is trying to reach you

She knows, below

She wants you

To know

.

Something, like then

Didn’t let me ask

And you went away

Dropping this hint and leaving

Me holding, waiting

A pandora’s box that trembled

Wondering again

If I’m just mad

.

But finally

I called you, and he was there

Funny, another projection wronged

He was a part of the conversation

I thought you were hiding away

No, he verified

Indeed I heard you right

And it wasn’t only me

It was also He

These secrets

Beginning to be told

.

Ones that hung Her

Ones that starved Her

Ones that stuck a needle in Her arm

Ones that kept Her hanging

Screaming

Alone

And ones

That made Him go away

.

We talk, almost giddy

Revealing what we know

Revealing what we don’t

Just glad, like these words feel it

Finally they can live and breathe

.

Those with certain knowing

Now lay as ash or corpse

All we can do is release

These words

These secrets

And try to put all the pieces, together

That explain

.

These secrets

Beginning to be told

Ones that hung Her

Ones that starved Her

Ones that stuck a needle in Her arm

Ones that kept Her

Hanging

Screaming

Terrified

Alone

And ones

That made him go away

.

Secrets