The Tangled Web
“Oh! What a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive”!
(Marmion, Sir Walter Scott. 1808)
How true those words from long ago
Yet still today are just as true
A signal to us, one and all
That lies are part of me and you
What poison festers in the heart
When we begin that web to weave?
What torture lies in store for those
Complicit in the great deceive?
That furtive phone call late at night,
A sideways glance, a stolen kiss
Those secret meetings in the park
That you would rather die than miss.
What drives us to these devious acts?
What makes us torture those we love?
Deception is our second skin
And lying fits us like a glove
Sir Walter understood it all
He knew what Marmion went through
And history repeats itself
In cheating lovers, me and you.