C-L-S

Once, we met. 

My hair was up, and the world was coated with snow,

and you

 talked to me with wide blue eyes

and a slippery smile, easy to fall into.

When I think about tomorrow, 

I see the calculus test I have not studied for 

and the five overdue assignments with long-received 

The school board tells us lies

Promising that they understand

Yet they don’t know 

What it’s like

To live in a world 

Where you are seen yet never understood

I hang candy necklaces from the tips of my fingers

All the way to your reaching palms.

We smile like we're kids again. Maybe we always were,

But who realizes that anymore?

I would never admit it, but

I’m broken. I have lived through a hell you only see in your nightmares. I was born into a world of agony and have stayed silent on the darkest of nights.

1. Smile. Teachers like kids who smile, especially during classes when mind-numbingly boring concepts itch their way into your brain and eat away the inside. Yes, you don't like school. No, you can't say that. Smile, smile, smile.