teenagers are constantly breaking
underneath the strain of potato chips
and fake ***;

plastic johns lining the house party outside.
All there is to do is drink
sparkling grape juice and wake up
sticky-eyed from nightmare tears.

Ah, another day
trapped like bears in a little zoo
and fighting with sharpened fingernails;
with animal growls.
Another one bites a strawberry
to make their mouth drip blood red.

It’s paradise in our happy school
And there’s nobody here.
I got up to sharpen my pencil and saw
the silent desks,
empty toilet stalls.

There’s no one to talk to
in this lonesome hell.