I Know a Secret

I know a secret
the creature said
He sat there on the cobblestones
in the darkness, just out of sight
of the yellow sodium light

We sat there for a while
Me on the bench, him by the sea
The wind not much
by the waterfront

The creature spoke again
a few years back,
I was sitting not far from here
in the darkness, just out of sight
a man raped a girl under cover of the night

I know a secret,
for I see very well,
even under — the night.
These eyes catch many things
I will never tell.

The truth came out
decades later at the trial
Your courts — are not like ours
We have eyes — which catch
The beating of the heart
Whispers — inside the throat

I saw an old man ill and dying
too rich and sick for jail
When he was coughing sputum up
I was sitting there
I know a secret
and I will never tell