My vulnerability is that I’m not strong enough
To expose my weaknesses
I don’t do full frontal poetry
Just let the occasional moon poke through
I don’t write about late night drinking and passing out in the recliner
Or midnight toking when I don’t need another joint
But want an excuse to look at the stars
I don’t write about my precarious finances
Or the precipice I’m skirting
And I certainly don’t write poetry about
The web of relationships that ebb and flow
In my life
My sex life is so boring
That I’d be hard pressed to extract a haiku from that prompt
Five fingers stroking
Seven minutes pleasuring
Five small lonely deaths
I’m not strong enough to remove all my masks
Or tear down all the walls I’ve built to keep you out
My honesty is opaque and measured
I let the world uncover truths or insights that I pass along
Rendered words transforming fact to transfixion
But in all honesty
I’m not
I’m not strong enough to celebrate my flaws
So I question my own authenticity
Wondering about truth
Or if truth is ever fully honest
Wondering about authenticity and phoniness
Would Holden Caulfield, aged and wrinkled
Sneer at me over his walker and call me out
Hey phony, why don’t you write something real for once
He’d say
And I wouldn’t be insulted
Because I’d recognize the truth
In all honesty
David Trudel © 2013
createdavidt 
David, this is so real. Love it. Your haiku in there, oh my–Holden would not be calling you phony at all.
He probably is suffering from dementia anyway, yelling the same thing to everybody. Thanks Susan.
I know my mother thoroughly enjoyed calling her brother a pain in the a$$, after she forgot who he was 😉
Brilliant!
Thanks Lea.
Okay, today is the day for honesty it would seem. As well as removing masks, facing the self made demons. not sure what caulfield would think, but then again, who gives a shit. you want to question something? question the need to question. you’re here, you’re writing’s here, how can it be anything but what it is? (aren’t you glad you encouraged my input?)
Of course! I enjoy dialogue. And I keep peeling away layers.
that’s good. peeling layers is always good. sometimes slow, but good. we just must be prepared for the core.
If there is one, lol. Sometimes it just gets all chopped and diced. Layers are arbitrary, something i have difficulty with.