The Currency Of Lies

It is hard to remember, but impossible to forget,
how much life with my family was under-written
by the verbal shorthand of jokes and catchphrases
that were repeated, l-o-n-g after
all the humour had been drained from them.

But worse than that verbal gracelessness
were the lies we traded every day,
often in the name of optimism
when compared with how we talked
there was little to be positive about.

Worst of all was how men lied about sex.
Our lies reached a level where it was
simultaneously exciting, forbidden
(outside of, and often inside, marriage)
and yet everywhere around us, all at once.

All men had to do was think of it,
and the possibility seemed close at hand.

When the local economy tanked
and men had less than the money
they had always expected to make
they made a currency out of cheap sex
outside of marriage, in public toilets.

Men gave themselves bonuses
in this new currency of sex procured by lies
when they were drunk whilst propositioning
other men, or youths, in public toilets
and those around them willingly obliged.

It was thought to be a profitable way
of filling in time after the pubs closed
and before having to go home to the wife.