The Secret

You dropped your secret
I picked it up
I hid it in my mouth
You turned
You asked if I’d seen your secret
I just shook my head
The violence of the shake
Make me swallow
That seed of a secret
Took root in my belly
Your secret is now grown
Roots push down inside me
Branches scrape at my very organs
I keep my mouth tightly shut
Lest the secret bloom
And seed scatters from my lips.

- Sharon Paine 2016