And now that you don’t have to be good you can be perfect
The scammer and the scammed are linked
through pure belief, mortal as sin
and no less tempting. You tell me
in an argument you’ve learned to phrase
the accusation you’re a liar, infinitely more
effective than that’s not true. Who cares
what’s true? I know what I am
but let’s never stop finessing it. Treat me
like one of the good ones.
When you perform for me I witness
a miracle. Most of sainthood is
withstanding the allegations. The rest
is looking up at the right time.
Kara Rota is a literary agent, editor, and writer whose work has appeared in Dirt, Los Angeles Review of Books, Write or Die, and others. She lives in Evanston, Illinois.