Poem: "secret" by Beverly Rollwagen, from She Just Wants.
Nodin Press. Reprinted with permission.

secret

She just wants to know your secret.
She won't tell if you've had an affair,
or your face lifted, or when you last made love. She won't tell if you're pilfering from the office, or gambling when you're supposed to be at the hospital visiting your mother, or what you would do for money. Strangers tell her the most unlikely things, and she never repeats them. Once, a woman told her she carried a gun. Silver with a mother-of-pearl inlay on the handle, a little jewel. She opened her purse, and the gun rested in its own velvet pocket, ready and dangerous.
Like every secret.