L.V. Brooks

“The Assignment”

First day
New year
Same assignment
Open up and share with me
Two truths
and one lie

I ask
Like it’s easy
to show surface
and substance
to a stranger
Shooting arrows into clouds
and trusting they’re safe
unsure of when and how
they’ll land

But they try
They try
Try

They scratch out sentences
of favourite colours and family members
unlikely destinations and impossible achievements
Pouring onto paper
their facts and fictions
Free to play pretend with truths
Trusting me to find the lie

Soon the bell tolls
for me and for them
Assignments come
freely and named

Truths and lies
All together
All

Except one

One is left
abandoned
I find it crumpled
curled into itself
ashamed
under a rusty chair
in the back row

I try to release it
but it fights my fingers
holding tight
to its fault lines

I coax it gently
and it finally gives
just a little
enough for me
to pull it open and see
its wounded pride
in angry scrawl

I don’t want to live.
I don’t want to stay.
I don’t want to go.

I flatten it gently
Giving the words
space to breathe
And add it to my pile

The hardest part
of opening up
is what spills out
Lies and truths
all bleed the same

Every year I ask
for their truths
and lies
While some play
with fantasy
Others find a chance
for a fresh start
But some are afraid
of the weight
of their truths
and lies
and lives

But this is why I do this
This is why
This
is the reason
for the assignment

I make a note of
which seat provided shelter
for the barbed words
in case its broken heart
seeks haven there again

Their assignment is complete
Now it is time
to start mine

---

L.V. Brooks is a short story writer who enjoys dabbling with different genres and forms. She is delighted to add 'poet' to her achievements, as this is her first published poem.