I watch your Judas lips drip poison

and I smile in polite fascination

pretending to agree.

I nod in the right places,

I make eye contact, I hope

my disgust is well hidden.

I can’t seem to follow this thread

this back and forth

this friendly banter.

I am not sure how this is

supposed to work… this friendship

this conversation. 

I am lost in a sea of political correctness

and cannot convey the thoughts

simmering beneath my surface.

I allow you to lie in my face

and thank you for your

endless unabashed betrayals.

I don’t know why I protect

you from me.  I owe

you nothing.  Nothing!

Yet you take from me…

day after day you diminish me –

rendering me irrelevant.

I will not die here – buried

under the avalanche of

your words…your indifference.

I will shake this off and

find re-birth in the flame

of your disapproval.