Off Guard Education

The secrets we were never told, these make

Us, slyly.  Parents held the secrets back

For cleaving reasons.  This may cause an ache,

Mild fevers in the bones, this silent lack.

The words our teachers and our lovers held

Inside their mouths, unkissing lips grow claws.

These people didn’t really dare to meld

With us.  They set our inner physics laws.

The lessons that we never learned become

Too crippled in our backbones and our souls.

These lessons get revenge by making numb

And ranging man- and woman-shaped drugged holes.

  Too late we guess the things we were not taught.

    We learn that blanks have penned us lacking plot.

~ Phillip Whidden