Secret, Personified.

I am reflected in every shopping window,
half mutt, half widow of Wall Street
disregarded by triangular spectacles of a bookkeeper,
by the pattern of a trampled, marble staircase
yet somehow you cannot rid yourself
of my design.

You vigilantly seek the ideal hiding place
while children clap and wave ribbons like
you are racing time but Time is two-faced, dear-
it will smite you; adults pick at you like scabs
that keep nagging and wine bottles still swinging
from bankrupt chandeliers.

I have destroyed you far too many times
and you, have escaped.

You remain anonymous to all though I am
constantly drugged by your shadow.
The police knock on my kneecaps at
five after midnight but they can't catch
a faceless thief.

(I could never consume your voice).

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Written 11/20/14 in-class inspired by a freewrite prompt to write about a re-occurring dream. My dream was being chased by a secret. May still edit later.