Unspoken Truth

She asked if I was at the party.

The room held its breath, quiet and sharp.

I said yes, the word a shallow stone,

a line dropped into still water.

She smiled, trusting that fragile swell,

never knowing the room was empty,

that I sat elsewhere, shadows playing

with the spaces where truth fell away.

The lie hangs loose, a thread unknotted,

waiting for the moment I might speak.

But silence keeps the weight, pressing,

a quiet that settles too deep to lift.