No One Sleeps Anymore

Something bad has happened,

I know it’s hard to tell.

We all smile when we leave

and step out into the sun,

but once we walk into the shadows,

that’s when you can see,

that’s when we drop our smiles

and let a tear trail down our cheek

because we won’t,

we can’t,

speak of what haunts our dreams

and turns them into nightmares,

and we don’t sleep anymore

because the nightmares that we thought weren’t real

climbed out of our ears into the world

and now we cry behind the laughter

and we smile to cover up our tears.

Hoping that someone will see through our clenched teeth

to the blood that flows free

from our tongues

down our throats

into our stomach

and weighs us down

so that our steps are slow

and our shoulders hunched.

And we just wish someone would ask if we were doing alright,

but even if they did

we would just reply

that we were just fine

but silently hoped that they would see what we craved to say

through the fear in our too wide eyes rimmed with red

because as I said before.

No one gets much sleep anymore.