Soothing Lies

I didn’t sense the lines were thin,

Where questions end, and tales begin,

You gave a smile, a softened tale,

To keep my world from turning pale.

I held it close, that sweetened sound,

Too young to hear the truth unbound,

That tale produced a colder tone,

When truth arrived, then not alone.

It brought a weight I didn’t choose,

A tender ache shaped like a bruise,

Not from the fact, but from the breach,

That trust is something truth must teach.

So I became what you had shown:

A gentle voice, a softer tone,

I learned to bend and wrap and hide,

To keep the storm from spilling wide.

But lies don’t soothe, they slowly bruise,

And cloud the path that truth would use.

I’d rather hear a pause, a sigh,

Than one more sweet, distorting lie.

Cathrine Hottran 2025