Lying

Photos: Dishes from Big Island Grill, Kona, Hawaii

In fifth grade, we had to keep a food diary for a month. It happened to coincide with one of my dad’s food obsessions: We had banana splits for dinner every night for two weeks. Mom even invested in the glass dishes to contain these concoctions. For one week, I reported, Breakfast: Cheerios and milk; Lunch: Bologna sandwich, milk, peanuts, apple; Dinner: Banana split and milk. Mrs. Burgess pulled me aside and said that I should be recording what I was really eating, not what I wanted to eat. So, instead of arguing, I concocted well-balanced, faux meals because I quickly realized that our real eating habits were not what she wanted to hear.

*I am not sharing any specific pieces here, but I have several poems that are drafted from an assignment where a group of writers list a lie or secret (without noting which category the phrase or sentence represents) on a scrap of paper. The ones I have randomly selected have served me well. Plus, it is a lot of fun to hear how my fellow writers have owned my lie—or secret.