Truth

I’ve heard it said

That the truth is a key,

Turning, twisting, torturing

Freedom from shadowed chains.

My life is a prison in which

The doors are made of acid and the floor is cold as ice.

Freedom is a flighty thing,

A tear in the night.

What is truth?

Perception, guided by experience.

False, wrong.

My heart is a bird, longing for the sky,

But there are hawks on the wing today.

I turn away, my pain invisible.

Truth will set you free, they say.

My truth will haunt and hurt,

A garrote for the outside life.

‘They lie’, I scream.

No one hears.

‘They lie!’

Truth won’t set me free.