Tell no one... tell everyone

It turns out the doctor who helped with my collar bone is rather into poetry. Spurred on by his enthusiastic comments, I tried extra hard to make the rhythm of the poem acceptable. Yes, some of the rhymes are a bit forced.. but (at the risk of committing poetic blasphemy) this is also the case with the original!

As I said previously, if you have any ideas on improvement, do let everyone know with a comment! It will make the whole exercise of this blog much more interesting.

This is a favourite saying of my Dad, if he wants to keep something secret: I can't tell anyone, so I'll tell everyone. Original.

I can’t tell anyone

so I’ll tell everyone.

I whispered, by mouth and by ear

To each of you, in tones soft but clear.

The secret, that’s one-on-one

No one must know, but one and one.

The secret that, when dug up,

Tells my birth in filth and blood.

The word, the secret, that magic song

That seeks, and whispers: pass it on.

It’s almost out, out in the daylight

But it got stuck, somewhere in midflight.

I can’t tell anyone

so I’ll tell everyone.

One got hot and flustered

She kissed as she whispered.

The other froze up, encased in fear

Went to the grave, and left me here.

I can’t tell anyone

so I’ll tell everyone.

The third one, stared in my eye

Started laughing, and so did I.

As I child I promised this:

I’ll call on god, if he exists.

But no burning bush, wine or bread,

Had shown me then where he tread.

I waited in vain, in hunger and envy,

I would have believed, if he had in me.

I can’t tell anyone

so I’ll tell everyone.

That it hurt when they teased and bullied

That it would have helped, to be the bad kid.

’Cos sin is an illusion, goodness doubly so

But reality is greater than any illusion show.

That I already am and that I am still here,

That I see the sun, and see it disappear.

I am no god or even a world,

Or an aurora, or even a bird.

I wasn’t better or worse, than any man who lived

But still the most possible: I was a man who lived.

Everyone’s relation and acquantaince

Everyone’s descendant and ancestor.

I can’t tell anyone

so I’ll tell everyone.

I will tell it, I would tell it to you now,

But my mouth stutters, and my hand is rather slow.

I will tell you, the end of the road you’re on

But to do that, you need to lead me on.

Raise me, to talk, see and live,

Here in the dust I cannot speak.

I threw away the rattle and don’t have a bell

Down in the dust there’s no way to tell.

A foot stepped on my chest and I…

Lift me up, lift me up high.

I rent a pedestal, one of many

I’d climb its stairs, if you let me.

What I’ll say? I don’t yet know

But it’ll be good news, I feel it so.

The good news, secrets and butterflies

To you, whom I loved

Waiting for magic, eyes open wide

That thing, that I cannot tell anyone,

That thing, that I will tell everyone.