'I cannot tell the truth,' he said,
'In truth, I always lie.'
I lay back on the gentle grass
And looked up at the sky,
He'd said it all before, of course,
He had me taken in,
Until I came to realize
Each lie was like a sin.

Each lie he told subverted truth,
Each 'truth' was but a lie,
If he could never tell the truth...
I turned my head to sigh!
'And so you lie with every breath,
Is what you're telling me?'
'That's right, they say I can't lie straight
In bed, yessir, that's me!'

'You lie,' I said, 'you lie again,
If you can't tell the truth!'
'Of course,' he laughed, and turned to kiss
His current girlfriend, Ruth.
'And so you even lie to her,
So what's her take on this?'
Ruth turned, 'I love a liar,
When a liar loves like this.'

I packed the picnic basket and
I threw it in the car,
Jumped in the driver's seat and turned
The key, then locked each door.
He jumped up then, alarmed, and said:
'You'd leave us high and dry?
You said you'd drop us off at home...'
'I lied,' I said, 'Goodbye!'

David Lewis Paget