Martha Collins was born in 1940 in Omaha, NE. She is an author of poems and has published them many books including a book length poem, Blue Front.

Lies by Martha Collins

Anyone can get it wrong, laying low
when she ought to lie, but is it a lie
for her to say she laid him when we know
he wouldn’t lie still long enough to let
her do it? A good lay is not a song,
not anymore; a good lie is something
else: lyrics, lines, what if you say dear sister
when you have no sister, what if you say guns
when you saw no guns, though you know
they’re there? She laid down her arms; she lay
down, her arms by her sides. If we don’t know,
do we lie if we say? If we don’t say, do we lie
down on the job? To arms! in any case,
dear friends. If we must lie, let’s not lie around.

The author plays with the word lie, laid, lay. According to dictonary.com, lie means a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood. On the other hand, lay means to put or place in a horizontal position or position of rest; set down, with laid be the past tense. The author is showing how these two words, while spoken similarly, but spelt differently, mean to completely different things. While one may not catch that the author is talking about not telling the truth and something horizontal, a few sentences with the right word choice can make it clear from the reading aloud point of view: “but is it a lie for her to say she laid him when we know he wouldn't lie still long enough to let her do it?” Contradictory to the definitions, this seems to be incorrect, although when we read it, it does. The author plays with these words, and chooses when to use which one based off the meaning or idea she wants to get across. Her word choice is confusing when looking into the definitions, but when read aloud, it sounds right. “What if you say dear sister when you have no sister, what if you say guns when you saw no guns, though you know they’re there?” this rhetorical question is defining a lie while in the next sentence-“She laid down her arms; she lay down, her arms by her sides”- is describing lay. The author is tricking us, but making sense in her own way because how she wrote it, her diction exemplifies her meaning.