THE WATERS KEPT MY SECRET

Stanza 1 I wrote this when the world was quiet, but has it ever really been quiet? Has it ever really been quiet at all? Even in silence, something is speaking. (echo in the dark: “night… night… quiet…”) Stanza 2 Even in the night you can hear voices, cars moving somewhere far, whispers hiding in the dark, sounds pretending to be silence. Stanza 3 All these things—and again, all these things and beneath it all, a voice screaming. A lady calling for help no one would give, screaming to a world that didn’t hear her. Stanza 4 He told me my body wasn’t mine, tried to pin me down with his words, words heavy as hands, pressing themselves into my skin. (a whisper beside her: “a diamond… should be worshipped… this way…”) Stanza 5 His breath telling me to be quiet, his shadow pushing against me, his weight trying to bury my voice, his hands turning into commands. (shhh… be quiet… don’t cry… shhh…) Stanza 6 And he walked away when he was done, left me there on the floor, sobbing into the silence, my crying filling the whole room. (crying… crying… crying… crying… sobbing…)