All Pretenses? ........ Poem by RIC BASTASA

it is all
pretenses:
you pretend
that you love me.
and i pretend
same feeling too.
to justify the
pain of this truth,
we pretend that
we are alive and
in a state of bliss.
as others pretend
too not to notice,
as we pretend too
that they too are
happy with their
states of mind.
it is all pretense
that makes this
world go round.
i guess, if something
is so true,
it is untrue.
if something is false
and accepts this
as truth,
it is not true at all.
did we arrive at
that point when truth
actually does not matter
at all?
because what matters is
we are alive and we
are happy.
and happiness has
nothing to do with
truth, as in fact,
we keep on saying
that the truth actually
hurts
but it simply sets us
free?
but free from what?
are we not free
already? from the day
we were born
from the fetters of
our own clothes?
from the prison of
our parents' embrace?