Thank you to Mark Antony Rossi of Ariel Chart for publishing my poem in the July issue.

https://www.arielchart.com/2021/07/spurious.html

Spurious

 

Only fictitious hurt sets upon

your haughtily and artificially shrouded heart.

You felt it was so right

to claim non-existent torments.

Your skin slick with fright

when you thought

you might be sought

to explain your accusations

to those you had chosen to malign.

What streamed from your eyes

was purportedly vanquished sleet,

but your tears lacked any pedigree.

 

A fireproof gig you’d come to play,

like so many before you,

who’d never learned how to entertain,

properly, 

without brute jabs

from a quiver of sharp words strapped

to your tongue.

You let loose your volley.

The cast of your bow,

surely you meant to hit the mark

of those supposed victors

you claimed had smeared you.

 

Now the jig is up.

You’ve been caught dead to rights,

but all you’ve blamed

will simply turn and walk away,

and let the mirror sit as your judge.