I come from a family of secrets

Some simple

The private language of a mother and her sisters
Language from another country
Distorted by a myth they called a dream

Some complicated

Who lives in our house?
Who comes from a secret past
To share our rooms
Sit at our table
Call themselves my siblings?

I come from a family that would not speak its secrets

But knew

Words on a folded page
The story of a secret past
Placed on our table for me to find
Would open and fold our family together
Or rip it to pieces

I come from a family that risked

Sailed to an unseen country
Married into a secret past
Risked a page I might unfold to read the truth

I write to take that risk

Place words on a page to be unfolded
To be spoken in some other room
To reveal the unread secrets
To say that those who share our table
May be siblings
May be strangers

To fold us together or
Rip us to pieces