Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
I lie to friends
And family.
I say that I’m okay.
I lie to myself
Saying that I don’t need help.
I lie to you
Saying that I don’t want you as something more.
I lie a lot. They're little white lies that hurt no one but myself, but they're lies all the same.
We hoist our masks,
Struggling to keep our smiles.
We hold our own hands,
Wanting the affection that proves someone actually cares.
We struggle to live
We struggle to love
We struggle to laugh at ourselves.
We love to fake being fine,
But we don’t really love it,
We do it out of necessity.
We speak, but our words are muffled
by the lies that we tell that make up our mask
That seems to hold up under society’s scrutiny.
How many times have we cried on the inside, wishing for someone to notice? Too many times, it seems to me.
  Feb 2019 Ephemeral Oblivion
Joliver
If there was one word
One word, isolated by itself
That I cannot stand above all others
It would have to be "Okay"
I despise "Okay"
"Okay"
Is how your millionth day at work went
"Okay"
Is off-brand raisin bran
"Okay"
Is how you say life is going
When you don't want to admit you spend
Every second of it
Wanting to die

"Okay"
Is packed to the brim with
Hidden implications
Like a treasure chest
Filled with bottles
With little subliminal hatreds
Written on tiny slips of paper
Passively aggressively pushed inside
To discover later
As I pull out a treasure map
And try to decipher
Where I went wrong

"Okay"
Is a one word dismissal
That feels like an essay a thousand pages long
"Okay"
Is a poison dripping with disinterest
When I dared to share with you
Something I thought might make you smile
"Okay"
Is like trying to talk to a wall
While watching the paint on it dry
"Okay"
Takes two seconds to write
Yet I waited days
For that dreaded word
To grace my notifications
"Okay"
Should be used sparingly
As if each time you send it
You **** the receiver just a little bit
"Okay"
Should not be said so often that
I know what you're about to say
Like I saw it in a crystal ball
"Okay"
Is not looking up from your phone
When I tell you about my day
"Okay"
Is not the proper response
To "I love you"

They say that the opposite of love isn't hatred
It's indifference
And I can't think of a response
More indifferent to pouring out
My heart into your hands
Than "Okay"
At least the last thing you said to me
Before we parted ways
Showed that you cared
At least a little bit
"I hate you"
Stung less
Than the thousands of times
Over our countless conversations
You responded
"Okay"
Okay?
Darling, we thought we were golden.
Honey we thought that we had it made.
But my dear, what they don't tell you,
is that the tongue is the sharpest blade.

Darling, we thought we were free,
free from the failures of others our age.
You called us love, my dear,
but if it were love...
If it were love then maybe- just maybe-
I'd want to still be here.

Darling, you called us perfect,
but the walls only hold so much back.
Love, you called me your light in the dark,
but I was eventually covered in black.
Love, you thought that we were eternal. What I didn't tell you was that neither of us are gods.
Next page