Sunshine Smile
I like to make my bed only when nobody else is ever going to see it.
It’s kind of like being covered in ornate tattoos but always wearing a full suit.
I’ll often hide in the woods so the trees don’t know I’m there,
Listening carefully, just in case any of them decide to fall.
Sometimes I sing myself to sleep because I’m too embarrassed to dance
- all those skeletons in my closet might be watching me.
I almost drank myself to death, drowning in a river of whiskey
By ignoring all the people trying to throw me a rope.
I brush my teeth religiously every morning and night,
Fastidiously trying to make my smile shine as bright as the sun.
But then I spend each day hiding that smile behind a suppressed grin,
Sitting atop my chin and not allowing any of you strangers into my world
- there’s only room for one here.
Like an old-fashioned elevator struggling to reach the top floor,
Straining under the weight of trying to carry the worry
Of others away from their overstressed shoulders,
- a stress that smoulders in our psyches and minds
Like a bonfire that finds itself hunched over in the rain,
Burning its way under the shelter of our brain and making it easier for us
To frown, and fret, because we often forget
To replace the rain that flows down your face
And embrace that sunshine smile.
