The Secret Sharer's Reaction

Have become focused on maintaining the few social relationships

Allowed with the current climate of CDC guidelines

Avoided the reality that some long suspected truths

Might be revealed while in somewhat closer quarters

Than simply hanging out over the occasional neighborly meal

Didn't think that the informational dam would be burst open

So unexpectedly and become tied up in a narrative such as this

How does someone think that they have a great story to tell

Based on the facts, figures and variables that have come into play

Realized very quickly during this semi-confessional what was going on

Caught on early due to certain turns of a few phrases what was happening

Alarm bells going off inside a shocked brain; it was too late to run away

Felt it would have been rude to get up and leave the premises

Partially checked out mentally while cringing on the inside of the news

Pretended to be engaged in the conversation to cover up horrified reaction

Don't be under misconceived notion that it was a crime worthy of Dateline

Just a story as old as time and has been done to death on Daytime TV

Wondered why this neighborly conversation turned into an episode

With a similar but really tired script of the same notions played to death

That this tawdry tale was the most epic thing since Gone With the Wind

Being meant to be happening and all that repetitive hogwash

Not realizing that they have cheapened their self worth in the process

A morality play and a sacrificing of your credibility in the offering

Trying not to reveal your true feelings to the matter with false assurances

That their "story" was safe with you and trying to process your reaction

In the privacy of your own mind and your own home

Wondering if you gave off some kind of internal signal unintentionally

You were willing to know and become a supporting player on the sidelines

Wished you knew what that was; so you could go back in time

Smack yourself for doing such a thing

Unsure of how to proceed with the facts of the case

Don't want to be a stereotypical representative of the morality police

They're old enough to know better; just seemed to have blinders on

Taking it one day at a time before developing a game plan

Hopefully, you won't be pulled into learning more unexpected tidbits

In the meantime, fingers crossed that no more revelations will come.