Secrets 2 Poem by Morgan Michaels

And this secret is a humdinger.
This secret is an anaconda. It is the Great American Secret.
All other secrets beside it would seem trifles-
would be shamed back into their coops;
this is a secret of the most delicate sort
concerning as it does a certain person from the Bourse
(a junior vice-president for the firm of Valentino
who is generally acknowleged a non-pareil)
in relative standing to a friend of our dear friend Larry
A secret of treble import and viral ongoingness.
guarded still, but for the solvent of strong drink
and confided me by Carl-his be the shame.
This secret bothers me now-
Barks, bays, rattles its chain,
Paces, ticks the bars with its tin, making itself a nuisance, wanting out.
insisting itself innocent.
Can the secret be blamelessly outed
in the eyes of, say, Fate?

I recall now once having read
in I forget which codex anticus
the sanctioned conditions, strict extenuations,
purifications, dispensations,
rites obscure and rubric byzantine, etcetera,
which can exonerate the teller
forced into a secret's needful disclosure:
conditions manifold and arcane,
pertaining to all secrets,
which may be essentially all
boiled down to three types
according to their natures.

First, secrets of State...