Where You Lied

Dear friend, you told me to meet you by the peach tree;
our solitude in a far away corner of a stranded park.
It was where we first met and years later where you knew your leg was broken.
It was where you told me you were okay time and time again,
but I knew you were lying each time said.
I always wondered why you lied.

There was never a time where I lied
to you under that cloying peach tree.
There was a time I thought I was in love with you, but those words were never said.
Then my spine gave out as soon as you fell in love with another girl again;
leaving me completely and utterly broken.

Do you remember when we were seven and I accidentally broke
your grandmother's lamp; and you took my fall, lying
through your teeth again?
Then there was that time you climbed to the top of the peach tree,
looking out the entire park.
"The view up here is excellent!" you said.

“Yeah, but you better get down here before you break something," I said.
You were always dauntless so you jumped, and seconds later you had a broken
leg in a stranded park.
I asked if you were okay and of course you lied
under that peach tree
for the hundredth time again.

After a lingering winter, we were seventeen and it was summer again.
"Lets play a game,” you said.
I leaned back on the tree,
admiring the sun bleached sky with clouds unbroken.
I wanted to play a game where you couldn't lie.
“Okay, then let's play truth or dare,” I suggested, as you gazed out into the park.

I saw a spark in your somber eyes as you excitedly looked at me, away from the park.
You never picked truth, because you always loved a good dare. Again and again.
"I dare you to tell me the truth,” I said.
But then I continued, "are you okay?" And that was when I discovered you were broken;
physically, mentally, and emotionally broken all while under that peach tree.

Dear friend, I’m walking alone to the park and remembered what you said,
to meet you at the same spot again; and I found you there lying dead and broken.
You lied because you wanted me happy under that cloying peach tree.