i sell a lie

Fold the tie with surgeon's hands

Check the collar, perfect stance

Face in glass, a frozen friend

Whisper, we begin again

A name I stitched into my throat

A smile rehearsed until it floats

A nod, a laugh, a sharpened sigh

And off I go, I sell a lie

It fits like shoes too tight to scream

It gleams like oil on water's dream

I press the button, smooth my brow

I'm someone new, I am him now

I sell a lie

In every word I wear

I blink, I breathe

Pretending I care

I sell a lie

With handshake and glass

I'm built to fracture

But trained to pass

The coffee's bitter, the silence clean

I bite the truth between routine

My desk, my phone, my mirrored eyes

All watch me live, and canonize

Every day a little death

Not of body, just of breath

Truth in boxes, price-tagged grief

I nod through joy, I nod through teeth

I sell a lie

But so do you

That laugh, that nod

That angle too

We paint the day

We mark the night

We're made of masks

We sell it right

I sell a lie

So clean, so small

You'd never know

I sell them all