Boys Don't Keep Diaries - Feb. 18, 2023

at 10 years old I kept one

it reads like an itinerary

an oversized activities pamphlet

a checklist of coming and goings -

homework around sports

and school holidays trips

friends and favorite records

with nothing between the lines

I’m at the age of feelings

Kept triple-locked in a dungeon

whose keys and key holes

are so well-acquainted

I think I sound happy

or maybe blissfully oblivious

or detached who can tell?

unlike girls who can emote

outside their embroidered journals

and fat feathered pens

laying on beds legs crossed

they can script emotion on frown lines

in the curve of lips or flair of noses

or in tears caught by a wrist

but never ever the cuff

of a shirt or sweater

that would be me

on the rarest of moments

alone in my room