We wear it
From outside within
the mask,
like a skin too tight,
Just to cover our feelings
Our sin
aching from the truth we shove beneath
the hunger,
the void,
Opioids are the new thing
the frantic search for something to fill
Aimless or something to enlighten
Or thrill
a heart that's been hollow since birth,
While we wonder in wonder
While we stumble
The earth

We run.
We hide.
We lie.
We try.
Tell them we’re fine,
but the cracks in our smiles
are deep rivers
drowned in quiet screams,
Filled with self lies.

We post,
we boast,
we boast,
The most
we’re ghosts.
Hoping someone will see the glossy surface
While we resurface
and forget the rotting beneath,
The Hollow gums
With no teeth
Release

We twist ourselves to fit
the mould
to be loved,
to be liked,
to be ******* wanted,
never confronted,
A million selfies
a million likes
but the soul
just shivers in silence,
telling ourselves
We alright.

And it never stops,
this game we play,
this price we pay,
shuffling in the shadows,
desperate to escape the mirror,
but it's us we’re running from,
us we’re hiding from,
the thoughts we confide
In our minds
Never right now wrong.

We drink,
we ****,
we party,
we fight.
Chasing highs,
chasing numbs,
but we can’t outrun the ache that seeps through
the pores of our skins,
where do we begin?
the weight of our own pain
always pulling,
always dragging us down,
sinking blame
sinking shame.

They say we’re lost,
but who isn’t?
We all wear the same wounds
the ones we’ve learned to ignore,
from then
from before
to pretend they don’t bleed,
they grow from doubt seed.
We’ve learned to stitch them up with hashtags,
with trends,
with the lies of "we're fine."
then a rope in the end.

But no one is fine.
Not the faces you see on screens,
You cant see my heart
For a heart is unseen.
not the ones at the bar,
not the ones in the bed next to you.
We all break in ways we can't say,
we wear our brokenness like fashion
hidden from day until day
and it never stays in place,
no matter how hard we erase.

So we lie.
And we hide.
And we wait for someone to pull back the curtain
living a life uncertain
and see us for what we really are
just people,
Broken,
fragile and fractured,
screaming in silence,
waiting to be noticed,
waiting to be loved
by anyone,
is it not how it is?
even if it's just for a moment,
even if it's just for the click,
even for a smile that's fake
But real quick.

But even then,
the ache remains,
Hidden pains.
The need.
The emptiness.
truth
And the mask gets thicker,
fitting tighter
until it suffocates,
until we can’t breathe,
on the news
he pulled the trigger.

We say it’s all just part of the game
the chasing,
the hurting,
the pretending,
hurt that's unrelenting,
But inside, we’re all the same
broken people
cracked in more ways than one
scrambling for pieces
we can’t even see.

And maybe that’s the truth:
We’re not lost.
We’re not found.
We’re just stuck,
staring at each other in a room full of mirrors,
Craving connection
But we cant touch ourselves
you looking at me
me looking at you
too afraid to admit
we're all waiting
for someone else
to look in and see
the bleeding
that won’t stop.