The Secret

The Secret


I never knew the secret
the whole truth had never been told
only fables and myths, religious glyphs
regarding the flesh and the soul

As a Lemming rushes to follow
disregarding the edge of the cliff
I, like so many others
lived a life unconcerned about this

For in youth, the cost of living
is more the price of a dress
the chance to be asked, to a Saturday dance
where you can flaunt you're evening’s best

Matters of mortality
or the course of the soul after death
were issues for the old and feeble
or the priest at his Sunday address

Frivolous as it may somehow seem
such naive beliefs were my vanity fare
and I spent my youth, rather aloof
without a heavenly care

Then one tepid summer's eve
in the midst of thoughtless bliss
while dancing at fire-fly soiree
a shadow appeared on my garden’s path
that stole my breath away

Her stature was lithe as a panthers
yet tall, with Raven-Wing hair
her skin, the color of moonlight
her eyes I could never compare

For once their gaze fell upon me
I was consumed by their mesmeric charm
and fell without fright, into their liquid night
as any woman into her lover's arms

I could feel her lips press against me
they were cold-fire on my skin
then she wrapped her arms about me
like a cloak of winter's wind

With a voice that was but a whisper
more thought than words expressed
she unveiled the ancient secrets
of the soul, and the flesh

Somehow, I knew her words were true
ancient, though discrete
offering a beguiling choice
from which I could not retreat

- to die in the flesh
- or live in the soul

till time and eternity meet

Yet, it wasn't immortality
or the allure of an eternal young age
that bade me give myself to her
rather the passion and lust she engaged

- simply put
- simply said

it was my heart, not my blood that she bled

Amused, I sometimes succumb to reverie
and without becoming to silly, or profound
wonder - was I first smitten, then bitten
or was it the other way around

And the dark is so much sweeter now
revealed by kindred sight
as my love and I dance midst the fire-flies
to the rhythms of an endless night