The Father of Lies

 by Brett Rutherford

1

A wrong deed
is almost always
self-evidently wrong.

A thing done
impulsively,
half-witted drunkenly,
or in a sudden rage,
burns on in the soul.

One may declare
that he has done this thing,
and, with an offering
be pardoned.

If others cry out
some inadvertent wrong,
faced with the truth
in clear light of day,
one can still make amends.

The lie is the father
of evil. The lie
denies the universe
its very existence.,
“I will” erasing
the ultimate “What Is.”

One kind of lie
denies a thing already done.
“I did not do this.
I have no idea who did.”

Another lie is a promise
one has no intention
of honoring, an oath
made in vain, a smile
concealing an adder’s tongue.

Another deceives:
sawdust in flour,
or chalk to whiten milk,
false medicine,
a thing so badly made
it will come asunder.

Another kind of lie
embellishes the self
at others’ cost. False
pedigree, a sham degree,
some claimed connection
to the wise and mighty,
or a private channel
to the thoughts of the Deity.

The father of lies
will assure you he is never wrong.

2

In Persia, among
its noble class, anyway,
the punishment for lying
was death, so high
was personal honor placed.

The Code of Hammurabi
enumerates
how lying itself
becomes the crime
of false witnessing.
Who lies under oath
accusing another
is severely punished.

One sees in Leviticus
that all manner lesser lies
can be obliterated
by public confession
and the gift of a bull
or a lamb or a goat,
a strangled turtledove,
or even a sack of flour.

The sons of Aaron
will attend to that.

But for the false witness,
a more profound justice
emerges.
He who accuses another
of law-breaking and crime —
if he be found a perjuror,
shall bear the same punishment
as though he had committed
himself the very crime
he accuses another of.

 

3

Words mattered once.
Once, unrepentant liars
were shunned, object
of scorn and ridicule.

And now? And now?
Father of lies,
     false witness,
           denier of all that is,
look where he sits!
No wonder we are going mad.