Who Is the Liar

by Laura Lee Bahr

“I know there’s a rottenness in people who pretend to be righteous. I know there’s blood behind their smiles.

How long can a secret stay a secret? Sometimes, I know, it’s hot as lava, burning from the inside, and you have to say it or it will burn you up. Some secrets crust over, glittering inside like a geode, something shining like diamonds until it is broken by something harder from the outside.

“When lava encircles a bubble of breath,” I say, “it can make everything glitter like diamonds when it cools. It’s called a geode, and now it’s here where your heart once beat.”