Challenging Poetry

weeping willow

I found a secret and held it
until my tongue ached with it
until my blood burned with it
until my breath caught against
the pressure of not saying it—
and I feared.

so I left my place
full of ears and cruelty,
and found the willow,
who always listens,
weeping, and emptied it
beneath her canopy of tears,
and the wind took it
and carried it away—
and when I returned home,
the world echoed with it.

and I felt so empty of it
I could fly.

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