Today’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano is to write a poem about opposites—specifically, to make two lists of characteristics, with one list being the opposite of the other, then writing a poem in two voices, going back and forth between the lists. I took a different approach to the theme…

Contrary to popular opinion
things are not what they seem

What happens
if we embrace the contradictions?

The inverse of the equation
may or may not have the same result
but we still don’t get to see the answer key

Then again, the book may not be true
history is told by the victors (or so they say)
and people with something to hide

A wise man once said
that a lie is not the truth until you believe it

Don’t believe everything you hear

(24 June 2015)