The Anneslee Poems: Relativity

Your smile snakes

across your face,

eager to prove

there’s something more

that binds us

than blood.

But I know better.

I know your secrets –

the ones you only tell

yourself,

hold close to the chest,

pray to Jesus

no one else

finds you out.

But I did.

I saw you

flat on your back

on my bed

like you owned the place,

smashing your face

and body against his –

a man too short

with hair too dark

to be the same man

who gave you that ring

on your finger.

These things

are hard to understand,

you say.

Adults make strange

choices under circumstances

I could never imagine,

you claim.

I hear you.

I’m listening.

But what you’re saying

is nothing new.

Your words cannot skew

the images burned in my mind.

I’ve seen you –

undressed,

savage,

waiting to be ravaged

and this is what

I understand:

you are not innocent.

I know your secrets

and no amount of blood

between us

will make me forget it.