Between Lies and Pain

I choose pain.

We gossip all the time. 

Shaping somebody, 

to what they aren't. 

When rumors emerge 

between shadows 

we change who somebody is 

to fit the narrative we've made. 

"There's another rumor going around, you know what I heard?" 

Rumors are just an ugly part of our reality, 

not true, but not lies either. 

But the rumors circulate, not quite becoming something awful, 

though not being something good either. 

I turned my back to them,

 to the unchanging mirror of lies framed as information. 

If we fight the rumors, we're proving them true, 

and if we don't, we're embarrassed because they are. 

When was that a rule? 

I hate when rumors are spread 

about people that haven't done anything bad worth noting. 

I'll fight the rumors, arguing that they affect people. 

These arguments feel like sword fights, 

swinging our blades back and forth. 

Yet still wearing a smile, 

a mask of lies, 

to hide what we'd say if nobody else was around. 

Even if I'm getting hurt for someone else's sake. 

Between lies and pain- 

I'll choose pain every time. 

Because these rumors are pain for somebody else. 

A place where no one else exists to tell lies, 

that's what I want. 

Surely somebody else thinks that I'm right as well. 

Please, laugh, 

lies overpowered.

 I wish that one day, 

I'll no longer have to clash my sword with yours, 

in an argument about what's true and isn't. 

You say there's nothing to change in the rumors going around, 

but that isn't true. 

Not in the slightest. 

I'm not going to wear 

that mask of smiles anymore. 

I'm instead going to tell you exactly what I think of you. 

Because somebody else was hurt from you changing their story. 

Because just like you and I have feelings, 

they do too. 

I'm going to make the world a place of laughter, 

and fun. 

Not gossip, 

rumors, 

or lies made up to 

fit your narrative 

of something that was never true.

So you ask me, between lies and pain?

I choose pain every time.

Because they might not remember your exact words, 

but the feeling they had when it happened-

will always stay with them.