Secret Garden - Maureen Rampersaud
June 2013
He watched her from the kitchen window. She was dead-heading roses, snapping them off ruthlessly, he thought. He would have dithered about the task – should he give this or that rose another day before execution? He wondered if that was how she had dealt with previous love affairs that had withered; a clean snap and it was over. He had put his ex-lovers through torturous misery; he didn't want to upset them.
She had stopped, staring into space, deep in thought. Her freckles were more pronounced now, at the end of summer. Strands of her light brown hair were moving in the breeze, like a French film in slow motion. His love for her made his whole body ache and it frightened him.
He prayed for the first time in twenty years, 'Please don't cut me down.'
Based upon 'Secret Garden' by Bruce Springsteen.
She'll let you in her house
If you come knockin' late at night
She'll let you in her mouth
If the words you say are right
If you pay the price
She'll let you deep inside
But there's a secret garden she hides
She'll let you in her car
To go drivin' 'round
She'll let you into the parts of herself
That'll bring you down
She'll let you in her heart
If you got a hammer and a vise
But into her secret garden, don't think twice
You've gone a million miles
How far'd you get
To that place where you can't remember
And you can't forget
She'll lead you down a path
There'll be tenderness in the air
She'll let you come just far enough
So you know she's really there
Then she'll look at you and smile
And her eyes will say
She's got a secret garden
Where everything you want
Where everything you need
Will always stay
A million miles away