The Truth

 

“Where's the truth, then?”

coughed a scabrous beggar,

eyeing me from a Portuguese pavement,

“where is it, you faker, where?”

 

“Really want to know?”

I smiled back: “Try this:

 

“Truth lies, really lies,

through its teeth

lies like a clumsy dentist

who never hurt anyone,

pretending cleansing truth

lying underneath the pain.

 

“Never be convinced

by politicians' obfuscations,

(pssst – they're in it for their egos)

and don't forget the power junkies:

the priests, the judges, the shock jocks,

all the rest.

 

Quiet !! Listen:

The truth is -----------

 

------- silence --------

 

as the wheels stop spinning,

and the car door won't budge,

and you can't see the road

through the broken bushes,

and you can hear the sirens

getting louder in the distance.

Now is the time to exist, really exist.

 

Or when a friend dies – dies

and is gone.

 

Don't say you're right when you're wrong,

and remember that lies are weapons -

of mass deception -

that might kill you one day

(and don't think people fools (they're not) ).

 

So please, please, remember this:

ideas stride this planet like vengeful emperors

or amoral fishers, crouching

around a flame-spitting devil's fire pit.

 

Sit at their feet if you dare,

and feel the flames around your own;

Surely you understand

that the most threatening thunderstorm

is as nothing to the power you have

of your own.

 

Chris Hubbard

2020