Truth

I visited my mother in a Tampa Bay complex
Klonopin and vodka all day
She's always pulling on bottles
No pull to eat
Staring at the cathode rays
But what was most sad of all
Is that you never want to leave your imprisonment
You said that "I'm happy"
I was arrogant I said that you weren't
Smoke billowed through the screen door slide
I stared at my computer to escape from the night
You asked me advice so I wrote you a lie
I typed: Truth's not punishment
Truth's not punishment
Truth is not punishment
Truth's not punishment

I visited a writer with anxiety complex
Prescription meds to last through the same
Prescribed in bottles
Shown on TV
Cost as much as eighteen plays
On his TV flat screen was the porcupine dream of the essay
Where a man and his dream let loose on caffeine see it only one way
And "Pain rings true" said the pen to the knife
And what rings true is what a pen wants from life
Said "I used to want to die just to prove I was right"
No one told me truth's not punishment
Truth's not punishment
Truth is not punishment
Truth's not punishment

I visited my lover in an hourly hospice
I've yearned for you on pixel display
I'm always pulling on bottles
No pull to eat
And cannot find the words to say
Except what is most sad of all
Is that I never want to leave my imprisonment
You said that "I'm happy"
But I know you and I know that you aren't
That's when the words they started to fly
Weight took off there and opened me wide
Took a smell of her perfume
And a glance in her eye
To learn truth's not punishment
Truth's not punishment
Truth is not punishment
Truth's not punishment