Secret

 

Iso-mandala No. 162 (October 2020)

[Secret]

 

secrets flare up from coals alive in ash

containment lines detect the nascent flash

stop turning my mood into burning trash

 

others congregate around a name

yours or mine or theirs it’s never the same

given what’s the game or who is to blame

 

secrets exist in various sizes

so many metaphoric reprises

deliver the same old instant surprises

 

daylight is no obstacle to dream

secrets secreted burst into words, seem

undercover yet ever on the scene

 

spell them out on the page for all to gaze

secrets that have become set in their ways

they still shatter peace or frighten the days

 

but what guilt or guard or hurt or fear

made them secrets likely to reappear

keep us in the dark where the price is dear

 

I would be freed of their inner power

the years cannot undo to spoil the hour

of their return and the doubts that sour

 

can but offer them in secret, my own

known or forgot, to the only unknown

to whom all desires and secrets shown

 

are there made real in their act of reveal

their dash and shame and cries and schemes unsealed

tears and cowers and groans let go, appealed