treasure

i've still got a few things to hide,

a few secrets

i haven't lost yet.

sold to me at the second- hand shop,

old secrets, of course.

passed down from

people who couldn't bear

to hold these secrets anymore.

i keep them in a cardboard box,

along the carpet,

beside the door.

and my friends walk over these secrets of mine,

with their feet

and high heels

and bare words

and lipsticked tears.

my friends forget we can all have secrets

and they rummage through them,

wearing stolen grins

and hands full

of my happiness.

but i guess that i should have known

this would have happened.

my secrets are treasures,

wrapped in paper

in a cardboard shoe- box.

bought from an old man

working at a shop,

begging me to take them,

begging me not to leave them waiting

there.

so i took these treasures,

these festering old secrets,

and i made them mine.