Success & Loss

The skin around our lids gets a little darker

our eyes sink a little deeper

wrinkles settle sadder and wearier –

they can no longer be attributed to naive laughter alone.

We smile, still

Do new things

Things that make us happy

They are supposed to make us happy –

Those successes that cannot be attributed to fiery passion alone.

No, there is a hole

An aching, gaping hole that needs to be filled

The edges of it seared open by the iron brand of loss.

And that is our motivation –

Gaping holes are ugly

Sunken eyes without smiles may only last a short time

And then you must get prettier

With success, they say

In order to move on, they say

And do what makes you happy, they say

So we try

We hold our success out in front of us, like we’re proud

So they can see and feel comfortable about us once again

Little do they know, we hold it out just so

To conceal the hole that remains gaping

And though we smile,

Our eyes still sink.