the price of lies.

what if

every time we spoke a lie

our body began to change

from soft states to beady eyes

from quiet to deranged

and our mouths constricted and twisted

lips chapped and burning

cheeks numb with a whispered hurting

our teeth rotten and chipped

contorted and amiss

noses stretched under unbearable weight

ears bent and pressed and mis-shaped

hair once soft, now calloused and thin

a retrograde of spoken sin

and if our hands would compensate

and scarred with tissue paper tears

bones unstable in their powdered waste

the physical statement of your worst fear

and if gossip led to our plight

our ravishing beauty now lit aflame

cracked and burnt and stunted height

a mark for every spout of shame

if all of these things would occur

for every lie i'd ever told

i'd be nothing except grey and old

a beauty broken beyond repair.