They say a smile can make someone's day
light up someone's day from a world away
They say a bright smile can spread like fire
a virus for which there's no vaccine to acquire.
But some wear a smile more like a mask
pretending to show the joy they lack
swallowing their sadness and setting free
a shadowy darkness, a midnight sea.
Slowly rising until you start to sink
drowning in the darkness that won't let you think
but instead of taking off the mask for a breath,
you breathe in the water until there's no air left.
And then after far too long the Smile--mask begins to crack
freeing your lungs of the poisonous black
but the damage never quite goes away
until the day you're lowered in your grave.
