Keeping Secrets Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

If closets could speak
What secrets would they keep?
If tables could talk
What conversations would they repeat?

What would our morning mirrors reveal?
What would our winter blankets conceal?
How much does our home know?
How much do we let show
When we believe ourselves to be alone?

If I could talk to your easy chair,
I would ask it how it feels
To hold you as you read,
To feel you fall asleep
Heavy in your dreams.

If I could have a conversation
With your shaving razor,
I would ask it how it feels
To glide across your jaw
As you hum and mumble
Rousing yourself out of drowsiness.

If I could interview your desk
I would drill it with inquiries
On how it manages to hold you
Hour after hour on lonely days

While I wait for you to appear
In my kitchen and sit with me
In the physical intimacy I crave
But which you usually save
For your furniture.