Do You Want To Know A Secret?

Goodnight, he says. Goodnight, she says back.

Music drifts from the other room, under the door,

And she sleeps, quickly and effortlessly, as children do.

Slipping into her dreams, humming.

Soft murmurs of lyrics, score of melody.

Listen.

On the other side of living, she walks barefoot in dry leaves,

Hazy, green light filtering between tree and limb.

Stones of sculpted marble at every turn,

Her blue and white gown rustling as she passes.

A marker, a statue, a tomb, an urn.

A stone, grey and tall, rises against a hill of earth.

The smooth headstone swings open, as if a door upon hidden hinges.

If there is fear it is outweighed by curiosity.

She bends and slips inside and the door swings closed,

Silence, but for the music she carries along like a thread.

Closer.

Stairs, narrow and damp of earth take her down,

But how far she cannot know and the smell,

Aromatic dirt, leaves, something like mushrooms and forest,

Is not unpleasant, only familiar, thick and heady.

She steps down, down, down, carried by melody.

A Small, bare room opens before her, and

Warm light spreads from the center, like an echo of the sun.

In the middle, on dirt floor, a man sits with legs crossed.

The light has no source, but he is awash in its glow.

Long hair, glasses perched on nose, guitar resting in his lap.

The music is here, there, everywhere now.

Guitar humming, fingers moving like soft slippers across strings.

Hello, the girl says. Hello, he says back.

She knows him, in an unformed way, like a thought without a subject.

She sits as he does, crossed at the legs, in the warmth of the low light.

Listen.

His fingers dance on string, music thrumming around her,

And he tells her it is nice of her to come.

She feels something like eternity spreading within her,

As if perched on the edge of the vastness of the universe.

But the feelings are too big for her, too unknown, pleasant and terrifying.

My name is John, he says, and she nods because she knows.

Come closer, I’ve something very important to tell you.

She does, leaning into the halo of light.

Do you want to know a secret, he asks?

Do you promise not to tell?

Closer.

She nods and music swells into every space above and below.

Rhythm everywhere like her beating heart.

His lips are moving, not lyrics but secrets, words,

And the music grows louder and louder until it is all she can hear,

Drowning out his voice, she strains to understand.

When she opens her eyes, awake in her bed,

She cannot recall a single word, the magic he revealed,

Hidden in the crescendo of that unknown colloquy.

But the music from the other side of the door is still playing,

Only much louder now, that same melodic lullaby that fed her to her dreams.

Closer. Do you want to know a secret?

January 1st, 2023