beauty is what she craves to find
when she searches the mirror for an answer.
and an empty answer always requires
a need for one

she tells me now that those happy pictures were empty smiles of self hatred and pain.
she says how this is how it has been.
i think of all the nights where i cried over my troubles.
i think of all the nights she was probably suffering along with me.
if i could see what she was thinking when i asked if her day was okay,
there would be essays of
no
no
no.

- a.g.