This smoke screen
A ruse to throw me off
This staunch scent
I can barely breathe
Words fail me
Paranoid and wary
Oh, how easily i'm deceived

Like a sucker to the yellow kid,
I'm enthralled in this illusion
You conceal your intentions artfully,
A gracious gift
You beguile me
I'm helpless to your control
Oh, how easily i'm deceived

Your front is peace-loving
Yet, i know no peace
and love has eluded me
Neither impatient nor angry
But this rod on my neck tells a different story
Still, your smile charms me
Oh, how easily i'm deceived

The role naive suits you
A befitting cloak for your bland tales
An unrepentant rogue
Harmless and banal
You lure me
Oh, how easily i'm deceived.

You were about to leave
3 words to make you stay
It was a lie
I forced myself to say

Somehow you did believe
Eyes so bright. I looked away

Together for another second
another minute, another day

If something seems too good to be true
it may be that it’s there to deceive you.
____

Chimera gave me a
Molotov cocktail
on a Friday night
in a neon-lit
downtown scene.
- - -
they never told
me not to drink it
because they wanted
me to go down in flames.
- - -
so I drank it, and it
burned my innocence
for I will never trust
another when they
hand me a drink
- - -
but i am phoenix
and from the
flames i keep
rising

I told the truth when all we had to go on was lies
Though the truth had no real value because deception had been glamorised

I acted with integrity and I did what I knew to be right
You put on your crafty masquerade and collected deceit's first prize