Human Ghouls

Untold cruelty, my ninety six year old 
first cousin, called me in summer twilight
to tell the story of untold cruelty
her mother had told her so long ago

she had held it, could not bear the telling
but felt she had to tell someone while she
still had a mind to remember the long 
ago, although near memory is gone

I  will spare the telling except in me
where it repeats over and over, those
I could have known and loved, destroyed,
cruelty unalloyed, unique and not unique

because cruelty has the gleam of freedom
for such human ghouls as enjoy the worst