Jamail Center for Legal Research
Tarlton Law Library

Small Lies

When you talked on the phone,
your voice seemed an odd pitch.
Now we meet, and
you look down,
avoid my eyes.
you edge to the door,
ready for a fast retreat.

In all our yesterdays,
your laughter has
filled my day.
I have wanted 
everything you can
give me, hungry to catch
all the tumbled phrases.
I left only with regret.

You thought this little half-truth
this sunny morning was nothing at all.
But look at the clouds banked up in north,
they darken and cover our easy conversations.
When you walked out that door,
I was glad to see you go.

Susan Stevens Chambers is with the law firm Chesley, Kroon, Chambers & Harvey, located in Mankato, Minnesota. She has served as an officer in local, state and national poetry societies and was the State Poetry Society Poet Laureate for five years. She has also served as a Poet in the Schools in Minnesota, Texas, Utah and Iowa. She has been published in Encore, Missouri Review, Northlight Anthology, Lake Country Journal, The Moccasin and Pasque Petal, and Minnesota Law and Politics.