Too many lives have been built upon lies, too many bodies stacked for the mouth’s mistake.

I bite down on my tongue.

Refrain, refrain, refrain.

I bite the side of my cheek.

“Do you love me?”

No.

The scars are developing although I cannot see, my tongue can trace the damage.

“Do you hate me?”

Yes.

Her lips could tell, they could tell I am a liar.

God, it’s a surprise that I don’t have an oral fixation.

“Are you ready?”

Yes, no, very much not. My tongue darts across my lips, my heart quickening.

Do not lie. You mustn’t lie, you know what will happen.

And? She can’t know. I can’t……I can’t have her knowing that, thinking that.

I cannot sign nor say.

Yet I do, my mouth spelling out doom.

“Yes.”

How will they know?

They won’t know.

They will know.

They have to know.