decorate your pain

we drape lights over our despair

wrap twine around the bottles of our hopelessness

stick flowers in the emotional trauma vase mom gave us when our hands were barely big enough to wrap around the glass

we display it all with a scotch-tape guise

happiness around the eyes (it’s okay if it’s made of plastic, they won’t notice)

content over the mouth (it’s okay if it was in the clearance bin, they won’t look too closely, anyway)

success in the granite of the kitchen

capability in the carpet of the living room

wholeness stitched into the place mats in the dining room

yes, uproot it, yank it free from your veins

place it in a planter next to the couch

darling, you’ve got a bit of abandonment issues on your chin

shall we smear it on a canvas and hang it in the hallway?

it’d pair perfectly with the lighting there

isn’t it strange how we decorate our pain?

isn’t it terrifying how much we enjoy it?

darling, your smile is starting to glitch (it’s okay if you buy a new one at the store, they won’t notice it isn’t real)