Quiet Gaze

I let the questions lose their teeth,

Let silence coil the ground beneath,

No chase, no scramble through their maze,

Just steady eyes in quiet gaze.

Their stories swelled, their colors bled,

With every word the truth was fed,

They patched the holes they thought I’d see,

But widened them unknowingly.

They reached for crimes that were not mine,

Dressed shadows up in borrowed shine,

Each gilded lie, each tilted frame,

A portrait signed with their own name.

The air grew thick, the mask unglued,

The pauses spoke, the slips accrued,

The twitch, the glance, the tightening jaw,

Each told the things I never saw.

And all I’d hunted in the storm,

Had waited here, in stiller form,

It wasn’t hidden, but really loud,

Clear in the moment I faced the crowd.

Now truth stands naked, stripped of art,

While I step back, my hands apart,

For lies collapse by their own weight,

And all I do is watch them quake. 

Cathrine Hottran 2025