Odor

“Deception” by Edgeworth Johnstone

 

like a renaissance tanner
anointed
with oil of clove
you cloak your disfiguring stench
in cunning bouquets
of sincerity

where did your face
learn arrangement in
chords of deception?

early on
in the mirror
that taught you to shave?

was it later
in the eyes of
your sense-deprived wife?

or ultimately
in the unsuspect
anosmic grip
of my handshake?

you realize
no truth
will ever again pass your lips
not even if it
truthfully does

the smell of your speech
fouled forever