He was never much for talking,
but he must have felt
our youthful lack of questions
as a wound: when
we asked him, later—
when we were old enough
to dare—why
he’d never told us
more
of who he was,
his answer flared
quick and sharp:
You
never asked.

Jennifer L. Freed usually writes poetry but likes the challenge of micro-fiction. She recently had a 100-word story (“The Lesser”) published in The Citron Review. Her website is jfreed.weebly.com.