you heard

 

I heard you swallowed a river

but called it a shot so no one would mind

the waters running along your cheek and

then     I heard you making secrets in the

room next-door, disguising them as tiny tree

ornaments folded out of paper and put away

in a basement box for next-year, already dusty

when    I heard you have the kind of sick you only

know is sick because plain crackers are the only

thing that tastes good, the only thing that doesn’t

make your stomach churn sideways because you

know    I heard you turned that river briny last night

with your cracker salt and floated that basement

box downstream pretending it was sent to chase

those bad-tasting headache shots away when really

really it was just the secrets    I heard you sneak away

away with sneak around with sneak up down-town with,

I heard you made a mess in the bathroom

bathroom but blamed your friends for clogging the drain

the drain with salt.