secret
Location
Some kids speak a secret language,
I hear them talk softly to one another,
It echos out of the girls bathroom and as I enter it stops, abruptly,
And I find two pairs of dark eyes directed at the intruder, at me.
I lower my eyes, ashamed at having interrupted their conversation,
Interrupted the steady flow of that secret tongue,
That is harsh and yet sweet at the same time,
That has a certain lull, a rhythm, a beat.
I ask them what they are saying,
It's a secret, they say and laugh, sharing their inside joke,
But refusing to include me, to initiate me into their enlightenment.
They keep their secret from me until I leave,
And it burbles forth again with more laughter,
So I wait, desperate to understand,
Longing to speak the rapidfire syllables,
That come so foreignly but so gently to my ear.
The only word I catch in my straining ears:
Esperando.