The Eleventh Commandment

Truths claw at my guts,

struggling to get out,

making me

first ravenous

then nauseous.

Nervousness,

jitters, and

a sour stomach.

When we say a thing

gone long unsaid,

the truth is released

from its prison in our cells

into our bloodstream:

a toxic rush.

Only then can it find

a way out of our bodies,

through sweat, blood,

urine, shit,

tears.

Our tears are laced

with poison.

When I speak a long-buried truth aloud,

I shed poison.

In romance novels

it is not uncommon

for the heroine to cry,

and the hero to kiss away her tears.

He would erase her pain

by taking it into his own body.

How romantic.

But know this:

My tears are sacred.

Thou shalt not kiss them away.

Thou shalt not dismiss my pain with your lips.

"Kiss it better" does not apply here.