A Secret Life

Why you need to have one

is not much more mysterious than

why you don't say what you think

at the birth of an ugly baby.

Or, you've just made love

and feel you'd rather have been

in a dark booth where your partner

was nodding, whispering yes, yes,

you're brilliant. The secret life

begins early, is kept alive

by all that's unpopular

in you, all that you know

a Baptist, say, or some other

accountant would object to.

It becomes what you'd most protect

if the government said you can protect

one thing, all else is ours.

When you write late at night

it's like a small fire

in a clearing, it's what

radiates and what can hurt

if you get too close to it.

It's why your silence is a kind of truth.

Even when you speak to your best friend,

the one who'll never betray you,

you always leave out one thing;

a secret life is that important.