Day Sixteen: "The Whole Truth"

The Whole Truth

If I had to tell it I would admit
to all the times I dislike people,

and to periodic bouts
of petty frustration that remain

mostly stifled. I would reveal
all the books I have not read.

Mostly, though, I would quibble
about whether total honesty

constitutes a brutal externalization
of every emotion I keep inside,

because the whole truth is
that, perhaps like all human beings,

I have made my mouth
into a vast, reinforced dam

holding back an endless river
of every feeling possible,

a torrent of useless twisting
ugly enough to drown cities,

and I would die before I finished
enumerating it all.