The Truth and The Lie
The Archaic Allegory Volume LIX
“Lo, glance upon the marvellous sky. Are you just not as beauteous, just the most just of all?”
The day did not appear to be any clear or any beautiful in the slightest. Lie, but, continued to reinforce the beauty that perhaps only he could see. He won over Truth to satisfy that the lamentable clouds indeed spoke of a beauty only the dark could see. Not wholly unconvinced but marginally unsure, Truth gave in and submitted to the assertions of Lie.
Is Truth just not as beauteous, just the most just of all? Did Lie lie at all?
“I see it. The horizon of heaven is clearer than anything I have ever seen, even the mirror, perhaps. I stand stained, but the sky does not.”, said Truth.
“If thou art stained, I shall bathe in the pool of mire. Thou art clearer than glass, shinier than the stars, yet I perceive thee not often. Why might this be?”, exclaimed Lie. He wished to see the vulnerable Truth. The one he held the ability to annex and dismember. He wished to see Truth disrobed, the truest of all virtues, the purest of all exclamations. Lie wished to win over Truth.
“Yet, if thou believest the stains upon thy skin, come with me to the bath. In the well shall we cleanse our sins, our filth, and all our skins.”
Hesitant of what might unfold, but not entirely unsure, Truth stepped ahead to see more of Lie. Arms were extended, giggles were liberated. Truth felt free—after longer than she had known—but only with her companion Lie. The two ran about and around, trying to catch hold of each other, outmanoeuvring advances and appeals, they wore their best only with one another. For what is the connotation of Lie without a contrasting Truth, and what shall remain the worth of Truth if not for the pitiful Lie?
Lie invited Truth to the well with him so as to wash off their sins.
Sins? Of the pious Truth? One wonders if there are any.
“Glance upon the beauty of the water. I see it as pure as thou.”, remarked Lie.
“You speak a great deal for the fraud that you are”, replied Truth. Fraud he indeed was.
Truth proceeded to undress her unsolicited clothing and stood before Lie, naked. Lie advanced closer and draped Truth in his cloak. He ensured her bare weakening body the warmth of illusion that he carried. Did she need the embrace of illusion, she knew not. Did she refuse it? She did not.
Lie’s deceptions drove her to the well. The water was indeed beautiful. She hurdled in and invited Lie who stood at a corner peering at her naked beauty. The waters were her beloved abode. She spoke of all the poetries and songs she had penned while writing off the sins of brazenness from her skin.
“They spit on me.”, suddenly blurted Lie. “Why, must you think, am I not worthy enough?”
“It’s a story for another day, beloved”, told Truth.
But I need to know. I desire it.”
“Not today, my love. Someday else, perhaps?”
“I do not get hold of you all too often. SPEAK!”
“Listen to me speak then. You, you are a hoax, an imitation. You are unworthy of caresses. The only thing you are the truest to is yourself. Your existence is a ruse. Why do you believe you deserve the esteem you would direly kill for?”, Truth cried out.
“Ha. Ruse resides not in my stripped and unabashed existence but your fueled camouflage. I stand outward, unapologetic and unbothered. And for you, they bury you to display me to the fore. They commend you before an audience but adore me behind the curtains. I am closer to the truer conscience than your mendacious stature. They love me more than they hate you. I am the truest of all ruse. You are a deception in the face of morality.”, spoke Lie.
As is customary, Lie did not err. He is the truest of all ruse. Unapologetic and outward. Truth saw the mirror in the bath and did she need the sweet caress of Lie? She bent for it, to hide in the cold embrace of Lie, but her companion had already left.
Lie was disheartened by Truth’s deceit. Lie demanded honesty for himself and puked a skit on reality.
“The only thing you are the truest to is yourself” punctured his conscience and echoed defeating his ego. Were Truth not true? Only Lie can reason.
He walked out of the well as Truth looked upon his move farther away. But the stunt had not ceased yet. There lied Truth’s clothing that she had given up to bathe with Lie. Lie had retribution in his mind, he needed to give it back to Truth.
He picked her garments and adorned them. Lie looked different, he looked like Truth. Does one realize? Lie had become his greatest adversary. Wearing Truth’s robe, he has ripened into his loathing.
Still in the well, Truth looks upon the event happening before eyes devastated. In the waters she lies naked. And there’s Lie taking her form.
Lie has resolved to live the life he loathed. He goes about the town duping the citizenry of his identity. They believe him to be what he is not—Truth. Truth laments her fall out of the well and screams before the citizenry for recognition, she fights back for her honour.
“Look at me! Do you not recognize me? I am Truth. Bare before you!”
Aeons bear witness, the naked truth is the social outcast. She is too radical to look at. Too penetrating to recognize. Too bright and fear inducing to be cognizant of.
So there goes Lie, adorned in Truth’s attire, duping all citizenry. And here laments Truth, the naked Truth, in a scrimmage with time for her life.
Truth is now too vulgar to look at, to converse about in public realms while Lie forms an endearing stance and as Lie wanders in the waking world for long enough, the line between him and her begins to disappear.
What is dressed as Truth around you, ponder at its attire, it might be stolen.
Until next time, ladies and gentlemen.