Secrets Unbroken

We’ve discussed this dream before
in long, subtle glances, 
sparked by mottled anxieties

And silent gestures
That have become a second tongue to us
Over sixteen years

For a time, we even touched the buds of promise
And planted a future that wasn’t to be
We dreamed out loud
of Home, of trees and flowers
we never had a chance to watch.

But now, when sunset closes curtains
We whisper secrets through our pillows
So the linens can keep our desires
From meeting hopeless hexes

Rarely, when we find a voice,
we speak of “if” and never when,
maybe someday, never someday
as if giving dreams a voice
will make them vanish.

And even though our wishes
Are still unspoken
and our plans unplanned indefinitely
we’ve built something in the silence.

With solid floors and photo adorned walls,
a modest space for family.
We’ve planted trees and tilled the earth,
mapped the gardens and accidentally spared the words,
“I want.”

But fate has taught harsh lessons
of how twists and turns of life
can easily tumble perfection
and cross out the marrow of the most detailed plans…

And so, we no longer look when we pass by,
no longer whisper of how it might work
for fear that something 
might shatter that which keeps us going.

Copyright © Jean Marble | Year Posted 2007

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