The Double Truth

I still taste you from the time
you painted my tongue
with your scarlet finger.
It cured my heart of innocence,
that single dose, and I have tasted it—
the double truth—ever since:
the bittersweet in the words
I cannot speak but stick
in my mouth like stones
I've learned to talk around.

From The Double Truth, published by University of Pittsburgh Press. Copyright © 2011 by Chard deNiord. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.