The Truth
By g.l. bass
July 22, 2001

Today,
Like looking in the mirror,
For the first time,
Who you are,
All those years,
As if clouds hid the sun,
As if morning slides into night
And the day is completely forgotten.
Reality is not a fresh drink of water,
It's 100 degrees in the shade.
Heavy, hung in clouds,
And you're waiting for rain,
But the sky refuses to surrender.


Today,
Reality came in rain.
Days upon days, upon days, upon days,
Of heat so heavy even the morning sun
Has glazed-over eyes.
The sunset veils its truth,
And we live life in a haze of lies.
Today,
A downpour washed the streets clean.
Like some kid,
I donned my umbrella,
Walked up and down the gutters.
The water sprayed up over my knees.
Blown in sheets,
The rain came.
As if baptized,
I gathered buckets
And saved them
If only to remember
That today reality
Washed over me,
A storm far too long
Denied, far too long feared,
Far too long ignored.
But sometimes,
When you're beyond
Anyone depending on you anymore,
Reality just comes upon you
A fresh storm.
You have to be grateful
That you can go back and
Remember what it's like
To be a child,
And see your face in the mirror.

Perhaps,
Reality is God,
Looking through your own eyes,
Back at you.
He does that,
And He takes everything
Off you,
From inside of you,
And strips you down
To who you are
In that single moment
As if He's
Your father waiting,
Standing behind the front
Screen door.
He's waiting for you
To tell Him the truth,
Even though he already
Knows it.

Today,
I saw God looking back
At me through my own eyes.
He was waiting,
Behind the door,
That's inside my soul.
And He's waiting
For the truth.
You know you've lived it,
From the time
You first tried to deny
All those years,
All those times,
Everything you've managed
To be and not to be
Over the course of your life.
He's waiting for you,
It's raining,
The heat's washed away,
And He's waiting
For you to look back at Him,
And simply
Tell yourself
The Truth
About
Who you are.


Today,
Reality rained out over the world.
I walked in the storm.
It was time to come clean.
It was time to be through
With it all.
And now
The truth's out.
God is waiting
For you to look
Back through
Your own eyes,
See Him,
And tell Him
The truth.
Even though
He already knows it.