On Reflection 

by Mary McCarthy

  

After a lifetime 

Your story broke too close 

Blowing my foundation 

Opening the earth  

Calling up the dead 

To walk again 

Dragging their sins back 

Into the open air 

Until each necessary breath 

Invites corruption 

And I taste your secret 

Like some foul communion 

I must swallow whole 

Or choke 

  

It will be as hard to forgive you 

As to rebuild these walls 

And drive the dead back down 

Too hard to forget your voice 

Telling my story 

As if it were your own 

  

* * * * *

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.