damp wooden planks
lie staggered
across the floorboard,
bent rusty nails keeping them in place.

she hides in the corner leaning,
holding up what’s left of the wall
and it pushes back,
holding up what’s left of her.

hunched over with her knees molded into her chest,
huge sobs rack her body,
taking over,
like an irregular heartbeat.

gripping the picture until her knuckles are white.
she’d give anything to go back to that picture,
that picture,
no matter how it makes her mind
scream in agony.

torn along the edges,
the slightly faded image marked in fingerprints,
covers up the deception of an ‘All-American’ family.
posed
with guise smiles plastered onto their silhouettes.
showcasing pearl white teeth.
painfully positioned next to each other.
artificial laughter. suspended. in the air. in that moment,
to cover up the hushed lies that are so clear, now that there’s nothing else to see.

strength drained from remembering the nightmare,
she regrets letting the weeds of lies
grow out of the picture
and tangle in her reality...too late once again.

the fire, thirsting for fuel,
doesn’t always get rid of the wood in the process of burning,
but scars it,
scorches it,
and then pushes it to the side
leaving a smoky reminder
of what it never was.