Prone

lying, lying, that’s the life

try it once; do it twice

in different formats; on and to

(your bed and your friends

the floor and your self) yes

lying for a living is what i do

you should try it too!

there’s dissonance that lies between

the way things are and what you want

a canyon, and you’ve burned the bridge;

you didn’t want what you said you did

anyway. look on the bright side

you’re on the bright side, and

that ol’ grass looks stale from here

across the murky gap, you’ll tell your

friends at parties and you’ll tell your

self to put your self to sleep

count your blessings like ebony sheep

one, two, three four lies

frolic behind shuttered eyes

you dreamt of sixth grade science class

you had to measure graduated cylinders of liquid

being careful to observe how the meniscus skewed

your view. “it’s half full!” blurted your classmate

and you flunked but you knew better, noticed

the concave depression, atmosphere bore down

and from that point on you always found

a little more air than water

in your glass

who needs sixth grade science class?

there’s a plus sign duct taped on your ceiling

flashing you encouragement, urging you

to keep it moving, keep on climbing high high higher

up the mountain toward cloud nine, grapple

with the petty faces of your baseless daily cliffs

but lately you’ve defaced it’s meaning

misconstrued the message by exuding positivity

in all the wrong damn places, each climb lost

is still a + (it must have been too steep)

there’s a difference between coping with

the things that simply happen, and relenting to

the things that you could simply overcome

but i stopped with the serenity prayers; stopped

praying all together, to persuade my self that

things turn out the way they always should

and convince my friends that i’m the self

i really want to be, but i really want somebody else

and want to be a different self and i fear that even

at the peak of my mountain i won’t find him

when i lay my worn lonesome to rest

he whispers to me in our bed

begging me to kill him dead

and half the time i lie awake

and lie and say i’ll make a change

tomorrow in the day

wake up lying, wake up lying

one of us is dying