Pep Talk

Cut out the lies, you insisted.
So I did. I took a stanley knife
and nicked and tucked:
excised the thinner fibs,
segregated the several deceits
and cancelled excuses like cheques.

My voice, once stertorous, crooned
lullabies where alibis
had trampolined from my tongue.

I was as bland as aspirin,
with nothing to show for
love, life, the cantanker of time,
or the words in my mouth.

They flew from my palate
like paper birds, like replicas,
and shimmied the evenings away.
I was as smooth as glue,
reflective as resin. You heard
the yap of my pep talk. All right.

From Love Poems

Pep Talk