Bound by Jean Ryan

The dead leave their stories
with those who knew them,
different versions for different people,
all of them true.

I wish I could speak of you freely,
the way others can.
I am not one of them.
I am not fine.
You were, we were, a secret.
To mention you is to skirt the truth.

When I am gone,
our story will go with me,
will slip beneath dark waves
and sink to a place where
all things bound can finally
come undone.



Jean Ryan, a native Vermonter, lives in coastal Alabama. She is the author of two short story collections, Survival Skills and Lovers and Loners. She has also published a novel, Lost Sister, a book of nature essays, Strange Company, and a poetry collection, A Day Like This. https://jean-ryan.com/