do you know how to keep a secret?

do you know how to keep a secret

when a secret doesn't want to be kept?

write it on a piece of paper

and store it in a safe place

no one (including me) will ever find it again

eat a whole box of pizza

and fall asleep on the couch

arrange empty liquor bottles

and tell yourself you blacked out

whisper it to the trees

the rumor mill will be buzzing

from honeycomb to mycelium

channels but no one understands

what passes through breeze or spore

sew your tongue to the top of your mouth

choke your neck with ivory teeth

weave a spider's knot between your lips

burn wax over the seam you'll never

tell again never ever pinky swear promise

hands clasped and chest tight with tears

step out your door with a backpack

keep going to the sidewalk and just

follow that sidewalk to the next until

you hit a street so walk on the shoulder

over side streets and highways pretending

you're someone else off on an adventure

scream it into the first downpour alone

lose your goddamn mind

you remember that day in fifth grade

when you made yarn crafts for the

in-school shopping mall but you

can't remember your own child

or sometimes your own name

what's a secret when

you can't trust your memory?

tell it to the echoes of empty houses

the bats will still hear it

keep it share it like history

in the echo chambers of their

upside-down disco dancing society

the dark corner-crouching thing

in the gable cradles your tale

grow a flower nurture it with

every impulse and each strand of hair

pulled from your scalp and patch of

skin peeled from your face

spew into the soil and watch

the flower die from stomach acid

kill everyone you might tell

kill the person who told you not to

kill your family your friends

their family friends acquaintances

eliminate every temptation

slice open the skull and remove

your frontal lobe put it in a jar

and bury it beneath a weeping willow

you no longer know you no longer care

find the shotgun and arrange it

so you can pull the trigger with

your dexterous big toe

do you know how to keep a secret

when a secret doesn't want to be kept?

do you know how to keep a secret?