The Secret Keeper

Across the churchyard we walked
You touched my shoulder with
Your lazy trusting hand (softly I sighed)
You looked me in the eye as if
You did it all the time
In another lifetime long ago

I felt my heart blossom
Like a newborn lily drinking rain
After a long season of sun
I let the spot your hand claimed
Burn for as long as it can
For as long as I can hang on
To the childish way you twist
Your lips, the twinkle of mirth
In your precocious hazel eyes,
The feel of your smile, so smooth,
Like buttermilk on the tongue

You talk to me as if
We have known each other to be
Each other’s secret keeper
All our lives—indeed I am
A secret keeper:
How I get a rainbow glow
Inside whenever I look at you,
Feel you, touch you, taste you
In the draught of your breath,
What little of it I can breathe in
Secretly

As we walk out of the churchyard
As I walk into trouble I know
As I walk my own risk for what
It’s worth—you for what you are to me—
I blink away what I can never be to you