Don't ask, don't tell

The other day,
I screwed up my courage,
drew a deep breath and
told you a long held secret.

I bared to you a hidden piece of my soul,
a piece raw and blistered from the
constant
rubbing
of the seething mass of
shame
confusion
guilt.

I drew into light

that which had been hidden in the darkness
for half the span of my life.

I waited

in a breathless agony for you to say something
but your words

when they came

were a confusing - disappointing - mix of
legalities and culpability in the eyes of the law.

As you spoke, that piece of my soul began to
slowly
pull away and hide,
back into the darkness
the rawness hidden away behind layers of
gauze and sticky tape and makeup.

The high walls and barbed wire littered with
keep out signs
ensuring once more that the
horrors
buried in their graveyard
will not rise for you again.