I carry a secret

Many are in two minds on whether it is best not to have any secrets at all. Secrets can rot a relationship. Though confessing is by no means a release from guilt. And in any case, a secret may not reflect a wrong doing. Sometimes a secret may reflect who we are which can be quite troublesome. We can be quite disturbed; not all truths need to be shared.

Here is a poem by W H Auden - "At Last the Secret is Out"

At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end, The delicious story is ripe to tell to the intimate friend; Over the tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire; Still waters run deep, my dear, there’s never smoke without fire.

Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links, Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks, Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.

For the clear voice suddenly singing, high up in the convent wall, The scent of the elder bushes, the sporting prints in the hall, The croquet matches in summer, the handshake, the cough, the kiss, There is always a wicked secret, a private reason for this.

~ W H Auden, ‘Tell Me the Truth About Love: Ten Poems‘.

And here is something I wrote

"I carry a secret

I will not share

As it occupies my mind

Most day

And into the night.

To tell you would be a dare

I'm not prepared to take

It would cause an alarm

Too shocking to stir.

So I keep it to myself

It's better this way

You will never know

And nobody can tell."