The Taste of Lies

An acquired taste

By K.B. Silver Published about a year ago • 1 min read

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-condiments-in-a-bottle-7493948/

At first taste, you might tend to recoil in repugnance.

Wincing and gagging at the bitter flavor.

Spitting out the acerbic mouthful like stagnant, cloudy water that was pooling in the sun.

Blatant untruths, however, take repetitive laps of the tongue.

Building up a gradual tolerance to the strong, distinctive tang.

Until you can gulp down swigs of the spirit like it’s lemonade.

Taking in great quantities with each carefully curated meal.

Mixed with carbonated liquids and fruity syrups, the concoction becomes more than palatable.

You might even beg for a test, lured by its sweet bubbling appeal.

After years of daily tonics, where does that leave the body, where does it lead the mind?

Inured to the pungent taste, yet addicted to its widespread surreptitious use.

Until you prefer the taste of sour wine to every other liquid that could be passing through your lips.

It’s not just any product derived from the vine; it's the waiting, the agitation. The chemical transformation enacted by the misinformation.

Looking to those supplying your treasured comfort, sucking it down like life-giving mother's milk.

Rejecting the truth from any source, because the taste of blissful senseless freedom is like rotten fruit to you now.

K. B. Silver

K.B. Silver has poems published in magazine Wishbone Words, and lit journals: Sheepshead Review, New Note Poetry, Twisted Vine, Avant Appa[achia, Plants and Poetry, recordings in Stanza Cannon, and pieces in Wingless Dreamer anthologies.

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