DELUSION

 

Delusion--Ah, the fantasy world

with pictures of grandeur and splendor

and empty politicians promises

like the false prophets philandering

their filthy facsimile

 

From delusion's trap set me free

to face the facts of reality

stripped naked, stark, blatantly

displaying its every facet

to starving eyes and ears

that strive for truth

 

Cut through the fancy frolic

and the elusive words of facade

the pretence, the mask, the unreal

and carve instead the image

true to life in all its rugged glory

 

Like the mountain's hewn cliffs

where the eagles nest

and where water wears its etchings

deep into time worn crevices

ever flowing in the deep path

cut in stone, eons in the making.

 

Don't paint the pretty prostitute in

tailor made clothes that tell a lie

Don't paint the old hag a face lift

And don't paint the old drunk a saint

Or the street urchin smiling

Paint the pain of lost pride,

lost integrity, lost hope

 

But only where it is so

and likewise capture the beauty

of a child's eyes aglow with love

and the old woman in prayer

kneeling, fervently seeking her God

And the old man, with wrinkles

earned by toil, strife and pain

as he looks back upon his life

with pride and thanksgiving

 

For delusion with its fantasy

carves deep trenches in the soul

and leaves scars upon the spirit

that only God can know

the depth, the pain, the sorrow

caused by lies inscribed therein

where no truth, however bitter, can compare

 

Or bittersweet, or horror

‘tis better than the empty words

of empty prophets, politicians and painters

of the putrid lies delusion occupies

Its stench, reaching beyond the sky

Ah delusion, filthy fantasy.

 

4 February 1993 (c)

Patricia Ann Laessig