It was early in the afternoon.
We closed the bedroom door
and did what we said we’d do.
My wife asked me to tell her
about what happened to me
when I was a child.
I have seldom spoken about
the unspeakable, undoable,
unthinkable, unbelievable.
All true. We walked through
the secret places of my
childhood sexual abuse.
When I was eight years old,
I lost a lifetime but I didn’t
learn about it until I was fifty.
You listened and loved me with
each word I spoke. You love me
for all that we will share and do.
What I know, all that I hoped for,
longed to do, and deeply desired
would never be the same as we
take a new road together that
rose out of the fire and ashes
of the unspeakable.
