Deceit

The worst deceit of all is self deception,

I know I’m not whom I proclaim to be.

Despite the bardic precept to be true

to my own self, I flounder to uncover

exactly who that self may haply be.

So I rewind my life’s long tape review

and mark the acts and chapters of the play:

In each successive stage I played a part

which I discarded as it proved miscast,

moved to the next, and so on, and so on

till I have reached the envied goal to be

set free from nameless collectivity

to claim that unique self I’m meant to be -

a wounded self yet whole, completely free.