Written

A letter to my ‘Friend’ (Dec 2023)

Can I ask you a question?

Why do you smile with deceit,

A faux friend's facade

Casting shadows on sincerity?

In those moments of whispered laughter,

The camaraderie feels as hollow

As the echoes of unspoken words.

Someone hates, without reason,

A phantom disdain that stains

The canvas of friendship.

Your perception of me, a funhouse mirror,

Reflects a distortion of truth,

Leaving me tangled in the cobwebs

Of your misguided judgments.

It's a kaleidoscope of confusion,

A hall of mirrors reflecting

A version of myself that I don't recognize.

Can I ask you a question?

Why would you want to share laughter and moments,

If they're wrapped in a cloak of indifference?

You tolerated my adoration

As if it were a pestilent thing,

A venomous serpent coiled

Around your fragile ego.

But adoration is no poison;

It's a bloom of genuine affection.

You should know that no person in America, 

Has the right to treat another

With mere tolerance,

For tolerance carries the scent

Of assumed superiority,

A condescension that poisons

The roots of true connection.

You should know that before I could see through 

Those deceitful smiles,

Before I could understand

The subtext underlying your every kind word,

I cherished the genuine warmth you brought,

Looking forward to those morning smiles

As if they were beams of sunlight.

You should know that my self-worth

Is unaltered by your skewed perceptions.

You do not change my value,

For I am more than the distorted image

Reflected in your mirrors.

And yet I stay, questioning,

Caught in the labyrinth of your emotional maze,

Hoping that sincerity will by chance replace

The mask you wear so well.