The Echo of a Lie

Unmasking deceit's stain: a journey from comforting lies to truth's painful, freeing light

Why do we spin these tangled threads, when truth's a clearer stream?
Betraying kindred souls, the ones we name as friends,
Whose laughter lights our days, whose fragile trust we hold?
To offer whispered comfort, woven from a silken lie.

We tell ourselves, "This one last time," and deem the ledger clean,
Yet in a breath, their faith dissolves, a fragile, broken pane.
Only to find the serpent coils, to strike and coil again.

A fervent, silent prayer, each time, "This shall be the last,"
But falsehood's root has taken hold, a tendril on the tongue,
Creeping deep within the mind, where shadows gently grow,
A silent usurpation, and we, unknowing, let it bloom.

Time, a fleet-winged butterfly, drifts past on unseen breeze,
We chase the mirrored gleam, forsaking what is real.
Our eyes, they see but what they wish, a self-deceiving art,
Painting the vibrant world in shades of starkest black and white.

Then comes the quiet dawn, the stark and chilling light,
Revealing the stranger we've become, stripped bare of all disguise.
A solitary descent, a plunge into the churning past,
To glimpse the haunting echoes of the choices we have made.

We strain to catch the good, the kindness we once cast,
But memories, like morning mist, dissolve before our grasp.
Yet countless wrongs, a heavy chain, hold fast within the soul.

The phantom ache of paths untrod, a sudden, piercing truth,
The mind, now freed, perceives beyond the blinders of the eye.

Oh, to be that guileless child, whose lips knew no deceit,
To shed this heavy cloak, this prison built by our own hand,
This edifice of falsehood, staining spirit, staining deep,
A bitter vintage, reaped from seeds that others freely cast,
And we, so keen to learn, embraced their shadowed, subtle craft.

A weapon forged to carve a grander, brighter self,
All for the simple want of courage, the strength to speak the truth,
To stand beneath its unyielding, honest sun.
And in that chosen shade, we missed the vibrant, promised arc,
The rainbow, pure and brilliant, after the clearing of the storm.

written on
03/09/2023
final edit
11/05/2024