(no subject)
what birdlike figure
What birdlike figure, they will say. What poise and grace.
I will not tilt my coffee in their presence, spill it on their tiles.
I will not smile. After all, my teeth are falling out.
(What good to poison such a fount of compliment with one true smile?)
So delicate in bone structure, they will say. All right.
I give you that one. One more lie won't hurt.
The lights will shine brighter while I am writing,
tonight, if this one lie is told and is believed.
They sit, eager for my agreement. I lie. I say:
I ate before the gig, the interview, the drive, the fall.
Whose lie is it, though, if they are nourished with it
rather than deformed?
The truth is that I have no fame, yet. I lie alone,
wasting away inside a closet.
To smooth the edges, I have pasted up the photos
of all of the liars before me.
What birdlike figure, they will say. What poise and grace.
I will not tilt my coffee in their presence, spill it on their tiles.
I will not smile. After all, my teeth are falling out.
(What good to poison such a fount of compliment with one true smile?)
So delicate in bone structure, they will say. All right.
I give you that one. One more lie won't hurt.
The lights will shine brighter while I am writing,
tonight, if this one lie is told and is believed.
They sit, eager for my agreement. I lie. I say:
I ate before the gig, the interview, the drive, the fall.
Whose lie is it, though, if they are nourished with it
rather than deformed?
The truth is that I have no fame, yet. I lie alone,
wasting away inside a closet.
To smooth the edges, I have pasted up the photos
of all of the liars before me.