In The Know By Natalie Frenette

The Secret 

By: Denise Levertov

Two girls discover   

the secret of life   

in a sudden line of   

poetry.

I who don’t know the   

secret wrote   

the line. They   

told me

(through a third person)   

they had found it

but not what it was   

not even

what line it was. No doubt   

by now, more than a week   

later, they have forgotten   

the secret,

the line, the name of   

the poem. I love them   

for finding what   

I can’t find,

and for loving me   

for the line I wrote,   

and for forgetting it   

so that

a thousand times, till death   

finds them, they may   

discover it again, in other   

lines

in other   

happenings. And for   

wanting to know it,   

for

assuming there is   

such a secret, yes,   

for that   

most of all.

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Imitation 7

In The Know

By Natalie Frenette

Two little girls as innocent as flowers

They’ve got life figured out.

How are they so wise already?

I’m twice their age and size.

I’ve seen things they’ve never seen

Yet they’ve got life figured out.

They know the secret of life.

That’s what I’m told anyways.

The secret of life is within 

Their favorite poem which I can’t name.

I wasn’t told the name.

Poem after poem, I tried to find it.

Nothing.

The secret of life was just for them.

No one else would be able to find it.

No one else could find it.

It was interpreted just for them.

Poetry with secrets, just for the girls.

Maybe that was the secret,

That there wasn’t a secret at all.

Either way, I would probably never know.

I was not in the know.

The two little girls that knew the secret of life

Would be the only ones to know it

Ever.