the secret

it takes so much work, stepping outside
to take the phone calls and keeping the files
of everybody and what they know grouped together

cross-contamination is inevitable as slowly
dawning realization hardens into belief
strengthening into disappointment as the curtain

reveals both the treatment and the treated
and what was kept out of sight so closely
guarded has become smaller than the act itself

but in hiding has become a luxurious fetish
the feints and maneuvers allowing a new spray
of adrenaline at being found becomes an addiction

in playing this game when no one knows who you are
not even the player when at times when loneliness
fills the rooms and nothing seems as it should be