by Larry Brody
NOTE FROM LB
Time now for a writing tip you don’t usually get in Screenwriting 101. Oh, wait. It’s not a tip at all. It’s a confession. Hmm….
I Tried To Write Another Lie
I tried to write another lie.
I’d written them all my life.
“I’ll just give them what they want,”
I said. “Write about the veneer.
Take out the heart.
Forget the soul.”
But my new muse said, “No. You can’t
Do that to yourself.”
“It isn’t to myself,” I protested. “It’s for
Them. The readers. They’ll
Like everything better this way.
Always have,” I said. “Always will.”
“Let me get this straight,” my muse said.
“You’re going to write a lie because
Your readers want lies. Not because just maybe
You’re the one afraid of the truth?”
I saw myself as a child, head down
Before God, resenting His waving finger
Only because I already knew right from
Wrong. I shook my head.
“No,” I admitted. “I want to lie
Because it hurts too much to
Be true.” I tore up my pages,
And went back to work, starting over
As I already was starting over in life.
My love smiled the smile that
Has earned her my heart.
“Welcome back to the world, kid,” Gwen said.
Larry Brody is the head dood at TVWriter™. He is posting at least one poem a week here at TVWriter™ because, as the Navajo Dog herself once pointed out, “Art has to be free. If you create it for money, you lose your vision, and yourself.” She said it shorter, though, with just a snort.