4/22/12

This is the poem you never read
By Juliette Mann


It’s the song I never sang you,
The words I kept behind closed hopes.
This poem contains my shadowed secrets,
The ones I never showed you
The ones that never fit the puzzle of you and me.
It knows the words I could never sew together
This poem lets me slip through your fingers.
A long time ago we decided
We weren’t worth the broken time to figure out,
But still my secrets make us crumble.
Did you know?
I said, did you know.
Love, I’d rather land on my feet than fall forever.
This poem is for me, and so you’ll never see it.
This poem is for me, it’s become one of my secrets.
I wish I could bring it out into the sun
But for now I’ll hide it in my darkness
Your alleyways stink of poison and mistrust,
Your doubts have already infected me.
But these are the fears you’ll never hear me whisper
I am not strong.
You strength comes from your faith in yourself.
But I can’t have courage without a lion at my side.
I’m tired of trying to steal your assurance,
I can’t be you without finding more of myself to hide.
Someday I’ll find my strength.
Not in you but myself.
I’ll throw off my secrets
And bring them out into the light.
But for now, I’m still shrouded in uncertainty.
I still cling to you
And the bits of me that hang from your shoulders.
So until then: I’ll crouch in your shadow
While you make your own music.
Listen: you can hear mine in the background.
But you won’t listen.
These are my secrets.
And this is the poem you never read.


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