in Praise of Lies
We are all abject liars. We need to be to survive
We are all abject liars. Yes, you too
It simply won’t do to be anything other
And me, too, through and through
We despise lies and liars. True?
Yet lies are needed every day
We re-lie on lies. No other way
Essential to our everyday survival
Wife: ‘How do you like my new hairdo?’
You: ‘That’s you to your boots, it really suits
Frames your face, sets off your eyes.’
Thinks: It stinks, set all a-tilt
Looks like something a crow built
‘It looks really expensive’
She (Defensive)‘Bargain honey, just ninety bucks’
(It was an obscene two hundred and fifteen)
‘Great darling money well spent.’
Lying bugger what you really meant
Ninety bucks? Shucks! Way too much, god it sucks
If you told the truth, forsooth
You’d both hit the roof
So, being weak, we lie to get by.
A hundred lies a day leave our loving lips
From serious (I love you)
To shallow quips (You’re great)
The quintessential essence of life is untruth
Break that rule and you’re a fool
You’ll be ostracised, driven away
And, god forfend,
Pay the ultimate price
Of being thought “not nice”
Wow, Tony, you’ve turned into a rapper! I bet you’ll be coating yourself in bling, turning your baseball cap back to front, wearing your tracksuit bottoms halfway down your arse and saying “Word up, motherfuckers” in no time! Seriously though, you’ve done really well here and I’m impressed. Your experimental and free rhyme scheme makes it easier for you to form lines and to rhyme when you want to, not just because it’s the end of the line and you have to. This means you can avoid the cardinal poetic sin of putting words in the wrong order, making it… Read more »
HI Archie, Thank you for the kind comment. You’re right I was just playing with words and form. I thought I might get a slagging as the poem is neither ‘fish-nor-fowl’ in poetic terms. Glad someone realises what I was doing. As for me being a rapper? Now that conjurers up so truly humorous images in my mind. A pot bellied grey haired granddad with a reverse baseball cap! 🙂
Yep, I enjoyed the ride, no slanging from me. I thought it was great.
Mike