This one might need a content note for… I don’t know. Emotional fucked-upness.
The only correct answer to “are you alright?” is “yes, thank you”.
She learned that lesson long ago.
She also learned that happiness meant keeping any sadness from impinging on others’ lives.
That courage meant not bothering anyone with her fear.
That anger was a privilege afforded others, not her.
Soon, she could only read her emotions on the faces of others.
When she was completely alone, with no faces around her to read, she found that her soul spoke in a language she no longer knew by heart.
Still, in the silence of solitude, she could hear it screaming.
Tom Juniper Poetry 