Lies are a cover –
Cloaking me from the outside,
From a night I can only assume to be starless.
It’s an art, this,
Hiding from the bad so completely,
You are no longer aware of the good.
But if they appear like a blanket, each is really a blade.
Double-edged knives
Pointed inward toward tender belly
Held in shaking hands.

It cuts something out of you,
To live this way.
To pay for each day
With an offering of blood and truth.
You make yourself less,
To appear as more
Than the nothing
You know that you are.
Deeper and deeper
They go.
The lies, the wounds, the need
Sawing away.
Lies are a cover
Layered one gently over another,
Each doing its best
To hide the slice before.

Jessie Gutierrez