WHEN I WAS 17 The sweetest lie
I ever told was "I love you too"
It tumbled out of my throat
tripped off my tongue
and fell into existence
a sticky, sugary testament of my romantic inexperience
desperately tried to remove it
ultimately resulting in sticky sugary digits
so when call and response time came around
again
I had no other recourse but to
suck those honeysuckle lies right back into my mouth
I love you too...
I love you too...
I love you too...
I love you too...
I love you too much to tell you I don't love you
catch 22 sweet lies I throw constantly
juggling insincerity with good intentions
trying to buy some time to devise a plan
some time to fabricate a flawless fool-proof falsehood
since honesty was already out the window

....although

there's still something about her that reminds me of spring
swing low sweet
lariat
wrapped around my neck and
squeezed
when she eased
her way down my yellow brick road she left me
breathless
her mahogany brown witchcraft left my mind bound and
gagged
impeding my ability cast a sinister spell of
separation

and contrary to popular belief
a word is worth a thousand pictures
if you say it just right
words being inherently attached to reality
can so easily
make things manifest
"It's for the best"
those are the words she uttered when she found
greener grasses
with another
and the words I had dropped so carelessly had
ingested me
infected me
and with tears welling up
I said with the deepest of intensities
"BUT I LOVE YOU!"
and she
with her head tilted downward
parted her perfect lips
and spoke a honey glazed ball of
sticky
sugary
insincerity
with which I was all too familiar