Poetry 2017 / 047

Washing Secrets

That piece of sea glass you found

as we walked upon the beach at...

was it Bridlington? Or Bournemouth?

Brighton or Bristol. Green, with the letters WA

which must have been part of a name.

Watkins or Wallace, Walsall or...

whatever the American state is reduced to.

There! A schoolchild will know better than I;

Somewhere I don't want to live, anyway.

Nor Walsall, if truth be told, though once I had friends there;

close friends I could rely on

until I suddenly couldn't

and I never found out why. They both stopped speaking to me

so I must have done something –

something other than keep a secret

(she was cheating on her husband)

that I never told.

I'll whisper the secret onto the piece of glass

etch it with acid

or the sandblaster I bought to clean bones

then send it back to the sea

and next time it comes to shore

it can tell the secret for me.

Or not.

for our 7th NaPoWriMo prompt  I challenge you to write a poem about luck and fortuitousness