by Starr Rathburn

Created on: August 08, 2010

HIGH SCHOOL SECRETS

     (lunch at Athol High)

As my friends' conversations

     surround me at lunch,

I look away from our table,

     leaving our circle of security

          to break into theirs.

I wonder how they can hover so

     around the secrets,

protecting one another,

     claiming they're securing the

          secrets they're saving.

While the girls at the next table

     talk about the friends

they talked to at B period

     - who'll discuss their kept secrets

               when they go to lunch.

All hug their secrets close, pretending to

     keep closeted between perceived friends

what makes them different from the rest of us

     - who think we're different

               from the rest of them.

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