subtext

and then there are the secrets I hold

ashamed and proud they are hidden

buried beneath decades’ sedimentation

of cliché scrawled furtively in the dark

my mind a damp cave filled with bones

memory’s savor of meat and marrow dim

my vision grown thin and luminous

faintly glowing like embers in ash

rising wisps of smoke momentarily mar

the stars’ milky path before vanishing

into inevitable night’s bright clarity

erasing the hint I once was here