smiling faces starring back at me those smiles don’t exist anymore fake smiles are what I see fake smiles behind fake eyes in the arms of revenge and hate holding in their arms children of innocence and love love doesn’t live here anymore it lurks in the shadows afraid to surface scared of those fake smiles

Tommy had a problem he couldn’t tie his shoe mom and dad were not around he didn’t know what to do Tommy had a problem he had to figure it out he couldn’t walk around with his laces all about Tommy had a problem so he began to try one lace over the other in the hole and tie Tommy had a problem he was almost there a loop with one lace the other stays bare Tommy had a problem one more step to go around the corner under the bridge and then pull like so. Tommy fixed his problem he was so proud he...

Two days ago my father died. Even now, as Sarah and I look at caskets, there is little emotion on my face. I cannot seem to shed one tear. “You just haven’t dealt with it yet,” Sarah says to me, “you guys were close. It has to effect you.” I begin to think about my relationship with my father. “Hey, Lily can you come in for a minute?” Dad said to me one Saturday night when I was thirteen. I walked into his office. “What do you think?” He held up a silver necklace with the letter E as a penda...