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enjoy this writing from Joseph Murphy in the free 6" x 9" 2017 PDF file chapbook: Crafting Wings (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)				You can also order this as a 2017 6" x 9" perfect-bound paperback ISBN# book! Click on the book cover or this title to get Crafting Wings as a book at any time!

Our Secrets

Joseph Murphy

For Frances

1.

Our words have scarred our mouths.

We can’t shake loose from what jabs us;
From a clutter that cuts short our stride.

Down-turned faces greet me; tender shoots
Tremble in our hands.

I’m trying to rub the soot away;
Speak freely again.

I promise to cast our lines ashore,
Force open the rusted gate,
If you step back,
Rejoin me.

2.

The stars return to their places as I quicken my pace.

My heart is ready to rise to yours,
But my thoughts remain stiff,
Hard to unfurl.

Please don’t offer me flowers
Only the blind can heal.

The breeze has begun to ignite
A little known fragment of our days.

How quickly the losses burn!

How easy it was to retreat:
To clutch the same twig,
The same dried leaves.

Hands joined, we kneel, no longer faltering.

We find ourselves on a ledge,
Neither willing to return
Without the other.

Calmly, we begin to share our secrets.

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