Two-edged Sword

Existence

Presents freely the manufactured gilded edge
of manipulated persuasion
opposite the hand-honed
sharpness of truth

Honesty asks

Does the brook feign the river
thinking the ocean blind

Does a sparrow imitate the hawk's dive
for celebrated death

Does an orphan pick the pocket of the rich
envisioning wealth

Honesty thinks not

For truth is truth
surrounding forces of false pride
making clear agony's face of contorted lines
even as deceit's buried conscience
fosters further layers of deception

Remember

Self-loathing flaunts disguises
made either in one man's fairy-tale heaven
or another man's angelic hell

Honesty

Sees your contempt
belying the studied Botox-enhanced smile
covering molten fueled hate
cleverly shadowed by your laughter

Obsessive quest for adulation
blatantly hides beneath your tears
where the arsenal of subterfuge
festers amongst ambition's price

But fear not your suffering of lies

Even as contaminants' false essence radiates
like nuclear waste biding its time
ebbing its tide against shores of honesty's harvest

For to your surprise

You'll realize duplicity eventually finds defeat gentle
when discovered beside compassion's scabbard
the
hand honed
edge of truth