Sanitary Lies
Guest Poems > Teresa Ann Frazee
Sanitary Lies
They’re little, they’re white, they’re lies
They sting more than heal
They strip you of your emotions
Then tell you how to feel
They’re self-serving bribes
Disguised to mean well
Conditioning us like dogs
At Pavlov’s dinner bell
The stale black breath
Of tongue-tied lies
Tightens the blindfold
Around justice’s eyes
They have the power to charm,
Talking heads with schemes
Profit from your strengthless will
And steal your heartfelt dreams
If I believed night’s penance
Could erase the days mistakes
Or could spot the real Santa
In a mall full of fakes
I would roam about
With brainwashed fools
Like heaven’s ill-trained children
Under a system of mythy rules
Our memories are etched
With once upon a time
And happily ever after
Promised in a nursery rhyme
Little girls with high hopes
Of becoming prince’s wives
Are disappointed grown-ups
Who hate their ordinary lives
Found the truth beneath a stone
Buried under its igneous roof
Took it inside, now I must
Live with all this proof
Held up to the light of day
Had the sweet smell of purity
Opened me up to fableless faith
Giving doubt a sense of security
Existed in the half-light
Ensnared in a web of neglect
Finally woke up freed
From a sleeping intellect
Burdened no more
From the weight of sin
Washed my hands of it
Knowing where it’s been
Put down the baggage
Of guilt and shame
It is hard to believe
Only you are to blame
Ghosts in the attic
There well might be
But I can only testify
To things I can see
To not know is absurd
A waste to be unaware
Nothing like the whole truth
To clear the stagnant air
Teresa Ann Frazee © 2015