Truth. One drink at a time

People lie
when they are sober.

Not
when they
are drunk.

The truth
has been known
and the consequences
sown
as a result
of one
too many drinks.

Socrates
said it best
and it’s been clichéd
to death
ever since.

The truth
that cannot be denied.

The truth
protected
by the lie.

Loose lips sink ships
and destroy entire worlds
when uttering
the proper phrase.

Fragile alliances
between conjoined hemispheres
collapse
under the weight
of what is
even as they drifted weightless
on the promises
of what cannot be.

I have loved
both what I could have
and keep
and what is beyond
my grasp.

I have sowed
love
just as I have
salted the earth
where it might grow.

I have loved
and lost
and have not yet decided
whether it is better
to know
or not
but I do know
the knot
that grows
in my guts
threatens to choke out
the last embers
of hope
I have held
for so long.

Eventually,
if kept
unkempt
the vines
will cover
it all.

From the foundation
to the roof.

From the lawn
to the sky.

From the truth
to the lie
I spy
with my bloodshot eye
something
that should be
but is not
and never will.