Interlude: What It Might Mean to Be the Other

       One day it happened:
someone told the truth, then someone didn’t.

       You realized how alone your mouth was.
Life opened its doors.

       You felt yourself holding back.
Your hair shone in the wind.

       You told the truth, then you didn’t.
No one listened either way.

       You took heart:
Your life opened its doors and stepped out.

       This wasn’t meant as forgiveness—
what would it mean for your life to forgive you?—

       or as being beyond forgiveness.
Beyond: such a strange idea:

       setting off to escape the world
and its confusions. Your life wanted to carry its secrets

       away while you waited. It turned to look
back, nodding in that way you never quite understood.

Lynne Knight | Intruders
Mudlark Contents | Mudlark Chap No. 66 (2018)