We are all guilty
of saying those two words that mean so much while being so small.
Those two words
“I’m fine”.
Behind smiles we hide and behind words we close the door to
anyone who may want to enter and reach out a hand
to anyone who might try to climb in a window
we board up every entrance with those two words –
harmless.
“I’m fine”.
So they’ll stop asking and
when they stop asking how we are,
what is wrong,
we can stop smiling so much
we can let our shoulders sag a little when we walk
we can slump down in our chairs because
“we’re fine”.
When they stop asking we can stop pretending to be
so happy all of the damn time because if they ask again
we’ll just say
“I’m tired”
“I had a long day at work”
“I’m just stressed”
“I’m fine”
When we are the farthest from fine but we think
who wants to hear about my problems.
Who wants to sit here and watch me cry over things
I can’t even change.
So we ignore those hands scratching at our walls
We ignore those voices trying to reach our ears
We ignore the ladders placed at our gates
and we repeat
“I’m fine”
-CM
A Kinda Pretty Mess 