Strip away the rotting paint
and tear off the fading wallpaper;
come away from your house of illusions
and walk into the realness of life.
There is an entire body of people
who find themselves to be as bright as you,
arrayed in their Sunday best,
grinning a mannequin's smile.
They sit in nice little rows,
and stare at the back of the others' head,
while imagining in their minds
that the world is really "okay."
They speak of lives that are not unlike
a theatrical drama that ends in "happily ever after,"
scripted and choreographed
by themselves and not the author.
Yet life is not plastic nor is it a play,
and their once a week Sunday best and mannequined smiles
can never convince their audience
that they are offering anything more than a lie.
-dedicated to the Nicodemus that I know...that Pharisee who is trying so hard to find Jesus but can't seem to quit living a lie, no matter how small it might seem, even to himself.
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