The Truth or the Grave
by p.b. wells
here it is plain and ugly:
we can't learn a damn thing
from the mistakes of the past
if the truth is locked in a basement
with its teeth kicked in.
you can dress a lie in a flag,
stand it on a stage,
make it sing patriotic songs,
make school kids salute it,
make preachers bless it,
make politicians hump it
for votes and television,
but it's still a lie,
still stinks,
still rots through the floorboards
of a country
like bad meat.
and we can't make amends
for the old wounds,
the stolen lives,
the blood dried into the bricks,
the names ground into dust,
if we don't have the truth.
you can't apologize
for what you keep denying.
you can't heal
what you keep covering up.
you can't wash your hands
while they're still busy
shoving the evidence
under the rug.
that's the joke,
isn't it?
a nation wants redemption
without confession.
wants innocence
without memory.
wants a shining future
built on a septic tank
of bullshit.
but the past doesn't die
because some loudmouth
in a suit says it didn't happen that way.
the dead don't disappear
because textbooks get edited
and cameras get turned away.
the truth sits there
patient as a hammer,
waiting.
and we can't build a future
without it.
all we'll build is another crooked house
on another cracked foundation,
another anthem
for another collapse,
another generation
taught to grin
while the walls burn.
our nation will not survive
on slogans,
or denial,
or the cheap narcotic
of pretending.
it will survive only
if it has the guts
the backbone
the raw miserable strength
to look itself dead in the face
and say:
yes.
we did this.
yes.
it happened.
yes.
we lied.
yes.
we were cruel.
yes.
we were cowards.
and then maybe,
just maybe,
with the truth standing naked
in the hard light,
we can begin again
not clean,
not innocent,
not holy,
and in times like these
honest is about as close to salvation
as we're going to get.
https://www.deviantart.com/pbwells/art/The-Truth-or-the-Grave-1316409458
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