CLOSED - The Ultimate Poetry Challenge

secrets my parents took to their graves

My parents were very private people
and they did not share a lot
of their past with their children
and they took many secrets
with them to their grave

my mother ran away
from a bad situation
with her mentally ill
first husband
and two children

She never explained
what had happened
including what happened
to her first husband

she claimed she was part Cherokee
yet the DNA tests reveal
that may not have been true
and since she never told us
the names of her parents
or grandparents
it would be difficult to trace
the family history

My father too
did not talk much
about his childhood

picked up pieces of the story
later when I met
with my uncle

His younger brother
and later when I met
my half sister
who filled me in
on some forgotten family lore

but there were so many questions
I had for both of them

and so many questions
will remain unanswered
now that they are both
long gone

if I ever meet them
in the afterlife
I would like to learn
all of their family secrets

but perhaps they will
never tell me
perhaps I will never
see them
in the after life

and so their secrets
will remain
buried with them
until the end of time