Fooling Yourself

Try to sustain yourself on truth if you can, but your noble aim will quickly come to naught. Life is bitter, and so too are the actions you must take, and they require skills that can't be taught. Only the honest try to blind others, for they keep, within their breasts a spark of life as it must be. And they will burn from the fire they protect, knowing that others never wished to see. But you cannot afford the truth as they, so burrow down within your very heart, rip up the thistle that is reality, and you will find yourself right at the start. Two paths to take, but only one will do. Fool yourself, and pain cannot break through. Written for "The Jester" contest, sponsored by Kai Michael Neumann