My Imaginary Friend

Is a story that everybody knows.

It is a story we all told by persuaders

who want us to do and buy the things

which we naturally 

(and properly) resist doing.
 

This is how the persuader's line goes

-'My imaginary friend does this and that

so why don't you do those things too?'

This is what advertisers resort to
when selling via breaking pretend taboos
no longer works, from overuse.

There are ways out of all this pretence.

The first is the off button, for which

we have to be patient to begin
to enjoy the silence that follows.

The second is to be more selective

about who we accept as our friends

and picky to the point of cynical

about the media we curate and accept.

The last is to accept that the friendships

that are meant to last the length of our lives

rely on us being honest with ourselves

about what we are not, and never were,

for what remains as our lives shrink to endure .