I Know What You Did

He came to me,

First at night,

Awaking me,

The tiny face in tears,

But not in tears,

Untouchable,

“I know what you did.”

At first,

His grief was not mine,

Then he came to me by day,

Somehow,

Just beyond my reach,

“I know what you did.”

He no longer need come to me by night,

My sad psyche seemed to summon him,

Or await him,

That my slumber might be disturbed.

I was powerless to reach out,

Powerless to silence him,

As he called me to account for an evil,

An evil done long ago,

In a far off place,

Who could remember?

“I know what you did.”

I had stepped across a line

Into a space,

Where none should be.

I could not undo,

What I had done.

I knew him not,

But he knew me,

Or knew my heart,

As it once was.

“I know what you did.”

But I knew not,

It lay too far,

In my wake,

As I hoped,

For a peace,

That would not come.