subtext

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The Vole’s Secret

I am broken bits and fragments

of others’ lives I’ll never know

beyond this myopic horizon

smudging the sun into night:

an owl slips through tree branches

to watch the rustle of grass below.

I hear the soft noises scurry

surreptitiously in my darkness.

The vole’s secret, larger than itself,

fits tightly folded into a pocket.

I dare not read what I do not

wish to know, yet it is waiting.

In my darkness, I must move slow;

in my darkness, there’s nowhere to go.

(May 5, 2025)