Truth – Middle School

Winner of the Middle School Poetry Competition, written by third-former Finlay Sanders.

Estimated read time: < 1 minute

Truth is as eternal as time, 
Yet absent in many, 
As constant as the coming of season, 
Though rarer than gold. 

Behind one’s veil of darkness, 
Behind a screen of marble, 
An iron curtain, a false front 
Luxury oblivious and pure, 
A land of extravagance, 
Of poppies and charms, 
That hush and subdue. 

A life of lies; 
How sweet it is, 
A suppression of pain, 
Of honeyed roses, 
Of syrupy indulgence. 
So easy it is to forget, 
The undying thorns. 

The midnight seeds, 
like bullets etched 
Into the fleshy crimson petals, 
The many torn from society, 
Loathed akin to a blood-shod gash; 
The many ruthlessly killed, 
As victims of hate. 

How painless, how easy it is, 
To burrow under a coat of lies. 

By Finlay Sanders