Dave Bonta's "Leak" is only five lines long, but it packs in a sharp view of how information behaves. The opening line says that information is "worth a lie," which suggests that truth is valuable enough that people will bend it, hide it, or trade it. The next line calls this "that great juggling of the ages," as if secrets and half-truths have always been tossed from hand to hand, with someone always trying to keep them in the air.
Then the tone turns. The speaker says to "give it away," as testimony to sin, and finally as "bad meat." That last image is blunt and a little disgusting. It hints that hoarded secrets rot, and that the best thing to do with them is get rid of them. The speaker seems weary and skeptical, but also oddly freeing: leaking is treated as a kind of confession or cleanup. The mood is cool, wry, and slightly sour, leaving you unsure whether the speaker approves of leaks or just finds the whole game distasteful.