but on the other hand,
do not always
tell him the whole truth;
sometimes your secrets will feel
like a fire beneath your skin,
silently burning, but they should
be revealed only when required,
like a cat’s eye necklace
on a dark road.
Disclosure exposes,
creates a stalking fear
like that of the grasshopper
who sang all summer
and now faces winter
without provisions,
as the wind whoops and fleers,
and sleet skitters over
the whitening ground.
a horseshoe shape
I never met you, danny murphy
but I know you had a child of six
and that christy gave you
mouth-to-mouth and pressed
your chest, and when the ambulance
came, they continued for an hour
and your phone
rang in your pocket
someone called kath
and I imagined
a planned date
and you, late
and I imagined your future,
trampled out of existence
in the space of a car turning
in the space of a horse rearing
in the space of the sun sinking
below the hill