stories my friends tell me about their childhood

my neighbour's screen door is singing to me
"hello" "someone's near; keep yr secrets
low to the ground"
but instead i put my glass down

once, when i was 6 i let a balloon go

attached was a secret and my address

we never thought they'd really come back
and they didn't; instead a letter a sympathy
delivered the humiliation, " accidents happen. i
was afraid of the dark too."

the acknowledgment-- too much to suffer

i never told another secret