pretty pictures with
empty smiles
tacked to a
picture board with
holes
through their hearts
proof that
superficiality can be
security
if that is all you
need
to see

so dance across
the rooftops in the rain,
my darling
if you think it proves
anything to someone
feel the wind
in your hair
and the tears
on your face and
don’t you dare to wonder
maybe
if there isn’t something
better for you

these brightly painted
sorely tainted
smiling faces will always
be here when you
want them
and still need them because
what if they were gone
and there was
silence
to do your thinking in

as roses crumple in the
cold and blacken with your
frosty tears, don’t you
wonder, dear
if there’s anything to fear
from this world which
you’ve created to surround
you and confound you
full of butterfly people
with their noisy laughs and
noisier sighs that cover up
their need to cry
the night away

because feeling is too
much for you so you just
flip through the pages of your
beautifully mangled life and
see the smiles
and let them tell you that
everything is fine
when, honey,
you know that it
ain’t so
but who cares anyway
you can’t escape so
why not just
wait for the
emotions to fade

it’s safer
not to know
what you would’ve
done
in a different world
where the smiles
weren’t captured and
catalogued
but free for all
to see


ignorance is...

bliss
?