Most Unwelcome 

by Mary McCarthy

The secrets women keep 

Go unnoticed 

Like the steel webs 

Inside our walls 

Holding them up 

Sometimes like swallowed lye 

They burn through our throats 

So we may never 

Speak again 

Dangerous 

More dangerous 

Than enriched uranium 

Demanding the most 

Exacting care 

Offering a terrible 

Opportunity 

To guard the home you have 

Or speak 

And set it all 

To falling down 

Around you 

  

* * * * *

Mary McCarthy has always been a writer but spent most of her working life as a Registered Nurse. Her work has appeared in many print and online journals, including Third Wednesday, Earth's Daughters, the Ekphrastic Review, and Verse Virtual. Her electronic chapbook, Things I Was Told Not to Think About, is available as a free download from Praxis magazine.