For lonely decades
I wandered unknowing
and not asking
Mercy in uncertainty,
a refuge from the facts
that threatened all I loved.

Holding bitter secrets
grew shame from shame until
wilfully I forgot.

Those lies were a poison
that pulsed, insidious
through my heart and veins
And still, as they made me sick
I inhaled the falsehoods
and left myself disowned.

Now there’s so much shrapnel
in the twisted sanctuary
I thought was home
But I know
that in the war between my soul and the secrets
there can be only one survivor.

Photo: Mary, Creative Commons.