Believeable Translation

A very short poem about the harm caused not only by speech, but by the being revealed through speech.

Its power comes from compression. The poem lands like a judgment delivered without ornament.

Three lines that locate pain not in communication but in being — what hurts is not what she says but what she is. The title's 'believeable translation' implies that truth itself requires translation, and that the most faithful rendering of a person is also the most wounding.

The poem achieves maximum impact through minimum means. There is nowhere to hide in three lines, and the speaker does not try to hide.