{"id":6808,"date":"2026-08-14T18:30:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/poems\/chain-of-lies\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T19:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:51:23","slug":"chain-of-lies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/poems\/chain-of-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Chain of Lies by Danil Rudoy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cChain of Lies\u201d by Danil Rudoy<\/strong> is a 2019 poem from Love Is Poetry<\/em>. A failed audition spills into a midnight quarrel where accusations about love, writing and poetry become another performance before tenderness interrupts the chain.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Chain of Lies<\/h2>\n
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It’s five to midnight, and she’s been drinking.
Her play audition did not go well.
I offered rescue; she went for sinking
And set her mind now on raising hell.<\/p>\n

She resurrects from the undercover
And fires, having her power staked:
\u201cYou’re such a tragedy as a lover,
All that you’ve taken for real, I faked!\u201d<\/p>\n

Her face portrays quintessential fury,
Her eyes resemble a gaping void…
How dares any theatric jury
Keep such a natural unemployed?<\/p>\n

With every second her lips get tighter,
So do the lines of her bitter role:
\u201cYou’re such a travesty as a writer,
All that you think you made up, you stole!\u201d<\/p>\n

I smile, remembering our adventure;
She takes it wrong and begins to craze.
At last. It’s time for a real danger:
Across the living room flies a vase.<\/p>\n

I dodge it, thanks to a stretch of sinews;
The shards do get me below the sleeve.
I’d pull the curtain, but she continues:
\u201cYou\u2019re merely nothing, and if I leave<\/p>\n

You’ll perish sooner than I will know it.
And let that not be a bad surprise:
You’re such a misery as a poet,
All that you wrote is a chain of lies!\u201d<\/p>\n

The stroke of midnight is filled with rancor.
She’s sobbing, desperate and aloof.
The chain has tethered her to an anchor:
I have to sever it with a truth.<\/p>\n

She acts no longer: an evil goddess
Has fallen down from her rage’s crest.
I hug her warmly and say with fondness:
\u201cMy star, this is how I love you best!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Completed March 10, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Publication<\/h2>\n

\u201cChain of Lies\u201d appears in Love Is Poetry: Rhyming Poems About Love Life<\/em><\/a>, in The Endless Day<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Performance and truth<\/h2>\n

The failed audition echoes through the quarrel as the woman\u2019s speech becomes a succession of roles and accusations. \u201cLover,\u201d \u201cwriter\u201d and \u201cpoet\u201d are all put on trial. At midnight the title becomes an image of bondage, and the closing embrace answers performance with direct affection.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Critical reading<\/h2>\n

A detailed critical reading of \u201cChain of Lies\u201d<\/a> on Prose & Poetry examines theatrical imagery, repeated accusation, artistic identity, rage, truth, rhyme and the poem\u2019s midnight turn.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Related reading<\/h2>\n

Continue with The City Dark<\/em><\/a>, Recurrent Pattern<\/em><\/a>, Poetry by Danil Rudoy<\/a>, and Love Is Poetry<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Text and citation<\/h2>\n

Copyright \u00a9 Danil Rudoy. The poem is published here as the author\u2019s canonical text. Short excerpts may be quoted for criticism, scholarship, teaching and literary discussion with attribution to Danil Rudoy and a link to this page. Full reproduction requires separate permission.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChain of Lies\u201d by Danil Rudoy is a 2019 rhyming poem from Love Is Poetry about performance, accusation, artistic identity, rage, and a final act of tenderness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["dr-evergreen-document","dr-schema-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7099,"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6808\/revisions\/7099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danilrudoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}