Bitter Fiction

We write the bitter fictions

of our lives to escape

the crushing disappointment

of our reality.

The pages swallow our rage

so that our mouths may deliver

a palatable version

of what our minds can accept.

We collect the volumes

and stack them away

secretly building

our own funeral pyre.

And when we die,

the mountain will burn

and the ashes of our truth

will blow away like the lives

we did not live.