The Diary - Poem by Gerard Geiger

THE DIARY

We started with smiles and letters
Love, building and getting better.
Sharing beginnings and days' end.
Then I found her diary, returned from a friend.
Dear Diary written on the cover leaf
Warned me what was underneath.
I rushed in where the angels fear.
We're trained to doubt what we read and hear.

Dear Diary suggests something rare,
Of personal dreams: young and fair.
To wander in uninvited,
Tempts the loss of love confided.
What reason can there be
For me to peer unscrupulously
What should it be, I ask of my soul?
Do rights of love win over rights to know?

I shouldn't have looked I didn't dare
Did I need to know if she cared
Was curiosity my driving force?
Who knows what will be life's course?
Does reading words she carefully penned
Establish a breach of trust to mend?
Shouldn't those secrets be kept inside?
-Not left out somewhere to hide?

Dear Diary suggests something rare,
Of personal dreams: young and fair.
To wander in uninvited,
Tempts the loss of love confided.
What reason can there be
For me to peer unscrupulously.
What should it be, I ask of my soul?
Do rights of love win over rights to know?

Or do words, when carefully written down
Have an existence that begs to be found?
The author's intent seems very clear
Words may be found if kept near.
Or perhaps the right of privacy
Is established by hiding from piracy.
With arguments made for either case,
Who would know? - there'd be no trace!

Dear Diary suggests something rare,
Of personal dreams: young and fair.
To wander in uninvited,
Tempts the loss of love confided.
What reason can there be
For me to peer unscrupulously.
What should it be, I ask of my soul?
Do rights of love win over rights to know?

I take a breath; I must decide.
My name, if mentioned, would fill my pride.
The answer to all her wants and needs
Would be mine to know and heed.
Such a script would let me know all.
Yet, such an act would ensure my fall.
Discovering her is the key to my pleasure,
I returned it unread: my greatest treasure.

Dear Diary suggests something rare,
Of personal dreams: young and fair.
To wander in uninvited,
Tempts the loss of love confided.
No reason can there be
For me to peer unscrupulously.
What should it be, if I ask of my soul?
The rights of love will win over the rights to know.

Gerard A. Geiger March 4, 1998

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